Frank Sejersen

Horizons of Sustainability in Greenland: Inuit Landscapes of Memory and Vision

A close, inseparable, and historical relationship with the land and its resources has become one of the central features of the cultures of indigenous peoples throughout the world, including the Inuit. The intimate attachment and sense of belonging to the landscape emphasize local bonds to place, as well as the extensive time span in which people have experienced it. This concern with locality is, among other things, framing the political use of local knowledge. Senses of locality and attachment to place have become important ingredients in the sustainability discourse in the Arctic as well as around the world. The article examines conflicts over caribou hunting and dog sledge versus snowmobile use in a discussion of the possibilities and limitations of such an emphasis on locality.

Earth System Science, the IPCC and the problem of downward causation in human geographies of Global Climate Change

Environmental determinist explanations of human behaviour have been few and far between in human geography since the Second World War. Environmental determinism is, however, resurfacing in human geography particularly when climate change is the topic of investigation. In this paper, we trace this revival and link it to the dominance of Earth System Science (ESS) and the institutional process of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the climate change research community. In particular, we want to show how findings coming out of ESS and communicated through the IPCC create a discourse of hierarchical scale and downward causation that prescribes agency to climate. We suggest that viewing scale as a social construction opens up for the analysis of climate change and its societal effects and interpretations outside the official script of the inevitability of adaptation.

Urbanization, Landscape Appropriation and Climate Change in Greenland

Abstract Approximately 80% of the population in Greenland lives in towns. This constitutes a challenge for resource managers as people are increasingly aspiring to use the landscape for a variety of purposes and activities due to the heterogeneity of the city. This article unfolds how urbanization is taking place in Greenland and how it reorganizes the society and the landscape. Four challenges related to different positions of the city of Nuuk will be touched upon: locally, the heterogeneity of the city is a challenge to the environmental management authorities; regionally, the city has to deal with societal changes due to increased industrialization; nationally, the city has to act as springboard for increased self-rule; and finally, the city has to position itself strategically in a globalized world where the Arctic finds itself in a double position: on the one hand, it has to deal progressively with the increased interests from global companies, and on the other hand, it has to navigate in relation to global mitigation policies developed to halt the accelerating climate changes. The four challenges will be understood within a framework of urbanization. The article argues that a stronger focus on urbanization and the urban phenomenon as omnipresent points to some shortcomings of the concept of resilience which has become so popular within Arctic research in general and within climate change studies in particular.

Conceptualizing Distal Drivers in Land Use Competition

This introductory chapter explores the notion of ‘distal drivers’ in land use competition. Research has moved beyond proximate causes of land cover and land use change to focus on the underlying drivers of these dynamics. We discuss the framework of telecoupling within human–environment systems as a first step to come to terms with the increasingly distal nature of driving forces behind land use practices. We then expand the notion of distal as mainly a measure of Euclidian space to include temporal, social, and institutional dimensions. This understanding of distal widens our analytical scope for the analysis of land use competition as a distributed process to consider the role of knowledge and power, technology, and different temporalities within a relational or systemic analysis of practices of land use competition. We conclude by pointing toward the historical and social contingency of land use competition and by acknowledging that this contingency requires a methodological–analytical approach to dynamics that goes beyond linear cause–effect relationships. A critical component of future research will be a better understanding of different types of feedback processes reaching from biophysical feedback loops to feedback produced by individual or institutional reflexivity.

Environmental history and the understanding of causal relations

Environmental history and the understanding of causal relations Frank Sejersen a b , Kirsten Hastrup c , Nick Brooks d , Mats Widgren e , Laura Vang Rasmussen f & Mattias Borg Rasmussen g a Department of Anthropology, Waterworlds Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Strandgade 102, DK-1401 Copenhagen K, Denmark b Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Waterworlds Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Strandgade 102, DK-1401 Copenhagen K, Denmark c Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Oster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1353 Copenhagen, Denmark d School of World Art Studies and Museology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK e Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden f Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 10, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark g Department of Anthropology, Waterworlds Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Oster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark Version of record first published: 14 Jan 2013.

Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Greenland 1983–2014 – Including Comparison With the Other Nordic Countries

Background During the last decades, social and life-style changes in Greenland have led to an increase in the incidence of several non-communicable diseases. Our aim is to present the cancer incidence and mortality in Greenland and compare the results with the other Nordic countries. Methods The data stems from The Danish Cancer Registry and The Danish Register of Causes of Death. Comparable data on cancer incidence and mortality in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Greenland are available through collaboration between Nordic Cancer Registries (NORDCAN). We included all individuals residing in Greenland and diagnosed with or died of a cancer from 1983 to 2014. Findings The total number of cancer cases in Greenland for the study period was 4716 and there were 3231 cancer deaths. Respiratory and gastrointestinal cancers had the highest incidence as well as mortality in Greenland for the entire time period and for both sexes. Compared to the other Nordic countries, Greenland had significantly higher incidence and mortality rates for several cancers. Cancer of the lip, oral cavity, and pharynx, respiratory cancer, and cancer of unknown sites had the highest incidence rate ratios (2.3–3.9) and mortality rate ratios (2.7–9.9) for both sexes. The time trend from 1983 to 2014 showed a significant increase in cancer incidence in Greenland with nearly the same incidence level as the other Nordic countries. While the cancer mortality decreased in the other Nordic countries during the time period studied, there was no change in the cancer-specific mortality in Greenland. Interpretations The trends in cancer incidence and mortality in Greenland compared to the other Nordic countries have not been reported earlier. These data underline a need to focus on cancer-specific mortality in Greenland and prevention of high-incidence cancers related to well-established risk factors.