Abstract
Significant climate change in the Arctic has been observed by indigenous peoples and reported in scientific literature, but there has been little research comparing these two knowledge bases. In this study, Sami reindeer herder interviews and observational weather data were combined to provide a comprehensive description of climate changes in Northern Sweden. The interviewees described warmer winters, shorter snow seasons and cold periods, and increased temperature variability. Weather data supported three of these four observed changes; the only change not evident in the weather data was increased temperature variability. Winter temperatures increased, the number of days in cold periods was significantly reduced, and some stations displayed a 2 month-shorter snow cover season. Interviewees reported that these changes to the wintertime climate are significant, impact their identity, and threaten their livelihood. If consistency between human observations of changing weather patterns and the instrumental meteorological record is observed elsewhere, mixed methods research like this study can produce a clearer, more societally relevant understanding of how the climate is changing and the impacts of those changes on human well-being.
Highlights
Climate change is affecting the world in many ways at different speeds in different places
Our objective was to use a methodological approach encompassing the complexity, subjectivity, and context-dependent high sensitivity usually associated with qualitative methods; along with the scale, consistency, generalizability, and validity more generally associated with quantitative methods (Agrawal 1995)
Our analysis revealed statistically significant trends for a majority of the variables tested related to climate change in northern Sweden
Summary
Climate change is affecting the world in many ways at different speeds in different places. Rapid climate change in the Arctic is affecting local populations, including indigenous peoples, who started noticing changes at an early stage, several decades ago (Ashford & Casteldon 2001; Krupnik & Jolly 2002). Qualitative methods are well suited for investigating local perceptions of climate change, which can yield insights into gaps between public understanding and quantitative climate trends reported by physical scientists. Understanding these perceptions is important as they drive behaviors and inform policymaking (Weber 2010). The Sami are the Swedish indigenous population and, in contrast to many other indigenous peoples of the Arctic, the majority of Sami are completely integrated into the Swedish society secondary to centuries of internal colonization. The friction inflicted by this colonial heritage is still affecting the Sami society and the relationship between the Sami people, the reindeer herders, and parts of the major society (Nordin 2002; Kaiser et al 2010)
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