Inuit economic adaptations for a changing global climate

Abstract

Based upon climate change research conducted with Inuit from Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut and a philosopher from Iqaluit, Nunavut, this paper proposes that market economic rationality limits the general Western approach towards climate change and indigenous knowledges. Building upon ecological economic research which indicates that there is little difference between the economic assumptions which are related to the onset of human-induced climate change and those underlying the proposed solution, these Inuit voices critique the separation of their knowledge—Inuit Qaujimaningit—into the research categories of ecological knowledge and traditional understandings as a means for economically adapting to climate change. It is suggested that Inuit knowledge of climate change offers a challenge to economic rationalization if researchers move beyond a mere documentation of ecological knowledge and engage the interconnected cultural understandings. The conclusion proposes that the relation between culture and ecology should be of significant interest to ecological economic thinking that aims to consider economic rationality, the global economy, and its climatic impacts in the context of bioregional adaptations.