Climate change impact
Living with the 'new normal': Local communities’ perspectives on climate change in the Arctic

How do local communities perceive and engage with the ‘new normal’ state caused by climate change? Photo by Scopio Images via Canva
Climate change is leading to rapid environmental change in the Arctic. The Iñupiat community of Wainwright in Alaska is directly affected by this change. How do they perceive and engage with this ‘new normal’ state that alters their livelihoods? This January, a research team will go on their second field trip to meet with the Wainwright community to find answers together.
While drivers and impacts of rapid environmental change in the Arctic are increasingly well documented, responses and perspectives of local communities have received less attention in the past. A research project involving Centre researchers Caroline Schill and Simon West and collaborators Kinga Psiuk and Tracie Curry hopes to help shed more light on these issues.
“It’s vital that we hear and learn from communities who are directly experiencing the impacts of socio-environmental change to support community needs and priorities and broaden and enrich how we live with change into the future,” says Centre researcher Caroline Schill.
The researchers will collaborate with the Iñupiat community of Wainwright, also known as Ulguniq or Kuuk, in Northern Alaska, USA with around 600 inhabitants. Their livelihoods and way of life closely depend on subsistence hunting and harvesting.
There is really nothing that I can do to stop the change but I can learn to adapt to it and turn it into something positive for me, my family and my community. That is how I see it.
John Hopson Jr, member of the Wainwright community and participant in the study

The Iñupiat community consists of around 600 inhabitants whose livelihoods closely depend on subsistence hunting and harvesting. Photo by Tracie Curry.
"There is really nothing that I can do to stop the change but I can learn to adapt to it and turn it into something positive for me, my family and my community. That is how I see it,” says John Hopson Jr, member of the Wainwright community and participant in the study.
During the first fieldwork in June 2023, participatory photography enabled community members to share their perspectives through photos and identify and showcase the environmental changes that matter most to them. Together, the photographs create a collective story of environmental changes, lifestyle, and concerns – all embedded in the context of the past, the present, and the future.

Wainwright is located in Northern Alaska, U.S. Image by: Google Maps
Building on these insights, the research team plans to explore how specific scenarios of socio-environmental change may affect decision-making in the Wainwright community.
”Through a transdisciplinary approach, we aim to support the Village of Wainwright in reflecting, sharing experiences, and devising strategies to live with change and uncertainty,” explains Centre researcher Simon West.
From 16–25th January they will visit Wainwright for their second field trip. Updates from this collaboration with the Wainwright community will be shared on Stockholm Resilience Centre’s social media channels, through Instagram.
Read more about this study and see photos from the first trip here.