Webinar – Greening the Arctic

Join Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute for the next event in the Arctic Environmental Humanities Workshop Series, titled “Greening the Arctic,” on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 from 10:00-11:30 am EST (3:00-4:30 pm GMT).

The Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the rest of the Earth. News of the alarming loss of ice now reaches around the world, but we don’t hear enough about what is happening to Arctic land that is no longer covered by ice and snow — it is becoming green. “Arctic greening” describes this alarming increase of vegetation around the Northern world, which accelerates global warming and permafrost thaw. But greening in the Arctic also inspires economic, political, and imaginative innovation among local and Indigenous Arctic peoples, who are “experts of change,” as Mininnguaq Kleist (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greenland) affirmed at the Arctic Circle Assembly of 2023.

“Greening” thus means different things to different people. For social scientists, it is a deliberate introduction of plants into built environments. Ecologists and geographers each observe plants transforming Arctic lands through different lenses, with different results. For Arctic farmers, the increasing ability of plants to grow brings both new opportunities and unpredictability. How do we make sense of these different visions of greening? This panel discussion will examine the dramatic expansion of plant life across the Arctic from a variety of viewpoints, considering the sciences and arts, and farms, forests, and tundra together.

The Arctic Environmental Humanities Workshop Series is co-convened by Adriana Craciun, the Emma MacLachlan Metcalf Chair of Humanities at Boston University, and Michael Bravo, Professor of the History and Geography of Science at the University of Cambridge.

Please register to attend here

Panelists:

Hannah Bradley, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Engineering and Society, University of Virginia
Ross Virginia, Myers Family Professor of Environmental Science, Dartmouth College; former head of the U.S. State Department Fulbright Arctic Initiative
Jeff Kerby, Senior Research Associate, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge; Visiting Fellow, Institute of Arctic Studies, Dartmouth College
Kim Neider, Head Gardener, Upernaviarsuk Experimental Station, Greenland
Inuk Silis Høegh, Filmmaker & Visual Artist; Director, The Green Land; Director, Sumé: The Sound of a Revolution