How to understand and cope with socio-environmental change in the Arctic?

Key preliminary insights from the Arctic Resilience Assessment

In this presentation at the SEI-KTH Seminar on Arctic Futures, past and present, Marcus Carson (Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute and Project Director of the Arctic Resilience Assessment) presents preliminary insights from the Arctic Resilience Assessment, a science-based assessment that aims to better understand the intersecting impacts of change in the Arctic’s tightly coupled social-ecological systems.

Marcus introduces key elements of the assessment, such as a definition of resilience that emphasizes human agency, and discusses some preliminary findings about (potential) regime shifts and essential factors for Arctic communities to cope with change and growing uncertainties.

Change in the Arctic region is accelerating and unfolding rapidly in multiple ways, so that one can expect dramatic impacts on the region’s peoples and ecosystems. As highlighted by the presenter in this video, although climate change is a major concern in the Arctic, other environmental changes are also occurring along with rapid economic development and social transformation.

Interactions among different driving forces may combine to have large impacts on Arctic peoples and economies, and on global ecosystem services. Such large shifts can be difficult to predict and may be irreversible. Understanding potential thresholds and society’s capacity to adapt and transform is crucial for preparing effectively for an uncertain future.