Climate Testimonies and Climate-crisis Narratives. Inuit Delegated to Speak on Behalf of the Climate

Bjørst, Lill Rastad

doi:10.1080/08003831.2012.678724

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…According to Bjørst (2012), the coverage of Greenland dramatically increased in connection with the United Nations 15th Conference of the parties (COP15) held in Copenhagen, where it was used as a platform to display climate changes. However, where Greenland had served as a 'climate witness' or a showcase for climate change before and during the COP15, climate change discourses leading up to the exhibition planning and opening were increasingly linked to rising opportunities and potential new earnings for Greenland.…”

Section: Case Presentation: Greenland Futures and The Globalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cool or hot Greenland? Exhibiting and enacting sustainable Arctic futures

Ren

2016

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Section: Case Presentation: Greenland Futures and The Globalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cool or hot Greenland? Exhibiting and enacting sustainable Arctic futures

Ren

2016

Journal of Cleaner Production

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“…Sometimes 'we' are less than global; what is threatened is life as we (affluent Europeans and Americans) know it. Other identities, however, may have sufficient legitimacy with powerful global audiences to be promoted as worthy of protection from the effects of climate change (Bjørst 2012). Among these, Arctic Indigenous peoples are not alone, but hold a distinct and prominent place.…”

Section: Initial Securitization: Fossil Fuel Extraction and Emission ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Greenland in Arctic Security

2024

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“…Colonial legacies situate circumpolar peoples as observers watching others debate climate change governance and expensive technological fixes that may force further sociopolitical adaptations upon them, such as displacement (Belfer et al, 2017). Bjørst (2012) says the Western world is fixated upon the Inuit hunter as a suffering agent pursuing a subsistence livelihood, untainted by bigger questions about development. She recounts how Greenlanders invited to the COP15 parallel event Klimaforum09, held in Copenhagen in December 2009, stepped outside their assigned role when they scaled up from talking about the local climate regime to development and economic independence of Greenland.…”

Section: Indigenization Distorted Under a Global Climate Gazementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change Totems and Discursive Hegemony Over the Arctic

et al. 2021

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The Arctic and its animals figure prominently as icons of climate change in Western imaginaries. Persuasive storytelling centred on compelling animal icons, like the polar bear, is a powerful strategy to frame environmental challenges, mobilizing collective global efforts to resist environmental degradation and species endangerment. The power of the polar bear in Western climate imagery is in part derived from the perceived “environmental sacredness” of the animal that has gained a totem-like status. In dominant “global” discourses, this connotation often works to the detriment of Indigenous peoples, for whom animals signify complex socio-ecological relations and cultural histories. This Perspective article offers a reflexive analysis on the symbolic power of the polar bear totem and the discursive exclusion of Indigenous peoples, informed by attendance during 2015–2017 at annual global climate change negotiations and research during 2016–2018 in Canada’s Nunavut Territory. The polar bear’s totem-like status in Western imaginaries exposes three discursive tensions that infuse climate change perception, activism, representation and Indigenous citizenship. The first tension concerns the global climate crisis, and its perceived threat to ecologically significant or sacred species, contrasted with locally lived realities. The second tension concerns a perceived sacred Arctic that is global, pristine, fragile and “contemplated,” but simultaneously local, hazardous, sustaining and lived. The third tension concerns Indigenization, distorted under a global climate gaze that reimagines the role of Indigenous peoples. Current discursive hegemony over the Arctic serves to place Indigenous peoples in stasis and restricts the space for Arctic Indigenous engagement and voice.

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Climate Testimonies and Climate-crisis Narratives. Inuit Delegated to Speak on Behalf of the Climate

Cited by 17 publications

References 12 publications

Cool or hot Greenland? Exhibiting and enacting sustainable Arctic futures

Cool or hot Greenland? Exhibiting and enacting sustainable Arctic futures

Greenland in Arctic Security

Climate Change Totems and Discursive Hegemony Over the Arctic

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