While change has been termed a normal state of affairs in the Arctic, the pace and extent of current ecological and societal transformations are unprecedented. They are also accompanied by a high level of uncertainty concerning the future guise of Arctic change and its mid- to long-term impacts.
In addition to the numerous effects of climate change, rapid social and economic developments, such as migration, tourism, resource extraction, shifting political relations, geopolitics, and more generally the forces of globalization, have far-reaching impacts on the Arctic’s social, ecological, and socio-ecological systems.
What does science say about the state of the Arctic regions? What are some of the societal impacts of climate change and globalization processes on specific societal sectors, including Arctic peoples? What are some of the policy challenges to addressing these issues? Join RCIScience and the Institute for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP) for another engaging panel discussion exploring the future of the Arctic.
About the Speakers
Moderator: Dr. Danika Goosney is the Vice-President, Research Grants and Scholarships Directorate at Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Danika was formerly the Associate Vice-President, Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat, at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She obtained her Bachelor of Science (honours) from St. Francis Xavier University and her PhD in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Biotechnology Laboratory (now the Michael Smith Labs) at the University of British Columbia, for which she was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal.
At the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) she held key director general positions within the Research, Knowledge Translation and Ethics Portfolio and in 2015 was named one of Canada’s emerging leaders as a member of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.
Dr. John Smol, Professor in the Department of Biology at Queen’s University and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change. Dr. Smol is one of the most prominent limnologists in Canada and around the world - a scientist who studies inland lakes and rivers.
Dr. Smol has a long history of studying the most important environmental problems our world is facing, including acid rain, calcium decline, contaminant transport, nutrient enrichment, and climate change, long before they were trendy! His research has been transformative in using long-term and contemporary records to understand global environmental change and he has led the field to further explore these important topics.
Dr. Smol is a Fellow of the Royal Society, an Officer of the Order of Canada, winner of an NSERC Herzberg Gold medal and last year’s winner of the RCIScience Sandford Fleming Medal recognizing outstanding science communication.
Dr. Jackie Dawson, Canada Research Chair in Environment, Society, and Policy and Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Geomatics at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Dawson is an Applied Scientist working on the human and policy dimensions of environmental change in ocean and coastal regions. She is considered a national and international expert in Arctic marine transportation, Indigenous community development, and oceans governance. She has served on two Canadian Council of Academies’ Expert Panels focused on the risks and social and economic values of marine shipping in Canada.
Recently, Dr. Dawson was elected as a member of the prestigious College of the Royal Society of Canada and the Global Young Academy and is also a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. She currently co-chairs the Societal and Economic Research Applications working group for the World Meteorological Organization’s Polar Prediction Project. Dr. Dawson’s research has real world relevance and has been previously used to inform federal, territorial, and local level policy related to Arctic shipping governance; has been used as a basis for recommendations appearing in an Auditor General of Canada report on Arctic navigation; and has appeared in several Arctic Council science reports.
Tim Argetsinger is the executive political adviser to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national Inuit representative organization in Canada. Prior to joining ITK, Argetsinger worked on language and cultural revitalization initiatives in Kotzebue, Alaska.