The co-production of knowledge for climate science

Indigenous and Western knowledge ethically combined is uniquely suited to address ongoing climate challenges. To build an environment where Western and Indigenous knowledge systems thrive, funding institutions must value co-production of knowledge and be available to Indigenous experts.

The regional Earth and climate models struggle to forecast the local impacts of climate change, illuminating a loss of untapped long-term observations of Indigenous experts. For example, sea-ice forecasting in the Arctic has focused on the total extent instead of on the ice’s location, type or quality. However, these high-level data are increasingly insufficient to predict change over time as ice conditions respond to climate variability. Instead, integrating Indigenous sea-ice typologies and background provides detailed information on where the ice will be, the type of ice present, and the interactions between abiotic and biotic ecosystems — rather than only predicting the quantity of ice4. As Arctic Ocean movement increases, this information is critical for real-time decision-making and forecasting.

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Acknowledgements

A portion of this work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). JPL is within the unceded land of the people known as the Tongva (Gabrielieño) in the Kizh Nation. We also express gratitude to the lineage of Alaska Native knowledge systems and resilience.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Kimberley Miner, Kelly Luis & David Schimel

  2. POLARCTIC LLC, Lorton, VA, USA

    Leslie Canavera

  3. Yukon University, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

    Jared Gonet & Paul McCarney

  4. Polar Institute, Wilson Center, Washington, DC, USA

    Marisol Maddox

  5. Forestry Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Gwen Bridge

  6. Climate Partnerships, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    James Rattlingleaf

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  1. Kimberley Miner
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Miner, K., Canavera, L., Gonet, J. et al. The co-production of knowledge for climate science.
Nat. Clim. Chang. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01633-4

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  • Published: 20 March 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01633-4

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