The Anthropocene as a Strategic Opportunity: Revitalizing Indigenous Knowledges in the Face of Climate Change

Bruggeman Room, CBIS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Wed, February 05, 2020 at 12:30 PM

Speaker: Kari Marie Norgaard

This talk blends my expertise on climate apathy with my recent work with the Karuk Tribe on restoring Indigenous fire, showing how the threat of climate change and awareness of "the Anthropocene" can be a strategic opportunity for human survival by working against the disempowering language of inevitable disaster which many scholars myself included have identified as reinforcing political paralysis.

This talk blends my expertise on climate apathy with my recent work with the Karuk Tribe on restoring Indigenous fire, showing how the threat of climate change and awareness of "the Anthropocene" can be a strategic opportunity for human survival on multiple levels. The gap between awareness of climate change and action has been a central concern to climate scientists, educators, social scientists and others who believe in the necessity for democratic participation and hence seek to mobilize the public (Hulme 2009). The cultural and emotional landscape concerning climate change is quite different in Karuk country. Not only is there virtually no traction for the “climate skeptic” frame, there is none of the handwringing or paralysis that pervades the more privileged progressive environmental community. Instead Indigenous peoples and Native Nations can be found leading the way in climate change policy, strategy and resistance by participating in the political process, engaging in sustainable land stewardship, and being at the forefront of many climate change activism efforts. In the face of the "Anthropocene" and the context of climate change, Karuk tribal knowledge and management principles regarding the use of fire can be utilized to reduce the likelihood of high severity fires (Lake et al 2017). Karuk values of stewardship, responsibility and restoring relationships are valuable aspects of Indigenous knowledge relevant for our collective responses to climate change more generally (Lake, Tripp and Reed 2010). For the broader non-Native public viewing climate change as a strategic opportunity works against the disempowering language of inevitable disaster which many scholars myself included have identified as reinforcing political paralysis (Smith and Howe 2015, Pihkala 2017).

Indigenous peoples have expressed frustration with the concept of the Anthropocene - just as the “discovery” of the Americas is an absurd concept, the “discovery” of the “Anthropocene” or the impact of humans on the natural world must equally be understood to be an event occurring for only a segment of the world’s population. Indigenous scholars and cultural practitioners similarly point out that climate change the not first existential threat many human communities have faced. By contrast the framing from the Karuk people with whom I have recently been working note how climate change poses profound ecological, social and political crises, but also opportunities to re-imagine our responsibilities to one another and the natural world and to create community. This talk blends my expertise on climate apathy with my recent work with the Karuk Tribe on restoring Indigenous fire, showing how the threat of climate change and awareness of "the Anthropocene" can be a strategic opportunity for human survival on multiple levels. The gap between awareness of climate change and action has been a central concern to climate scientists, educators, social scientists and others who believe in the necessity for democratic participation and hence seek to mobilize the public (Hulme 2009). The cultural and emotional landscape concerning climate change is quite different in Karuk country. Not only is there virtually no traction for the “climate skeptic” frame, there is none of the handwringing or paralysis that pervades the more privileged progressive environmental community. Instead Indigenous peoples and Native Nations can be found leading the way in climate change policy, strategy and resistance by participating in the political process, engaging in sustainable land stewardship, and being at the forefront of many climate change activism efforts. In the face of the "Anthropocene" and the context of climate change, Karuk tribal knowledge and management principles regarding the use of fire can be utilized to reduce the likelihood of high severity fires (Lake et al 2017). Karuk values of stewardship, responsibility and restoring relationships are valuable aspects of Indigenous knowledge relevant for our collective responses to climate change more generally (Lake, Tripp and Reed 2010). For the broader non-Native public viewing climate change as a strategic opportunity works against the disempowering language of inevitable disaster which many scholars myself included have identified as reinforcing political paralysis (Smith and Howe 2015, Pihkala 2017).

About the speaker...

Dr. Kari Marie Norgaard is Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at University of Oregon. Dr. Norgaard is recent Chair of Section on Environmental Sociology, American Sociological Association. Over the past fifteen years Dr. Norgaard has published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, Indigenous environmental justice, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture and sociology of emotions. She is the author of Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Nature, Colonialism and Social Action (Rutgers University Press, 2019) and Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions and Everyday Life (MIT Press, 2011) and a recipient of the Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award, a Sociology of Emotions Recent Contribution Award and the Pacific Sociological Association’s Distinguished Practice Award. Her work on climate denial and Indigenous environmental justice have been covered by the Washington Post, National Geographic, British Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio, High Country News and Yes Magazine, among others.

 

Video of Lecture