Festival of Social Sciences 2021 – Perceptions of Climate Change - Talk by Dr Pelle Tejsner: ‘Fluctuating weather and changing coastlines: perceptions of climate change on Qeqertarsuaq/ Disko Island’

In line with Cops26 and the increasing urgency to develop interdisciplinary thinking, action and understanding of climate change, the School of History, Law and Social Sciences in conjunction with Bangor University’s Places of Climate Change interdisciplinary group, hosted a Talk by Dr Pelle Tejsner on; “Fluctuating weather and changing coastlines: perceptions of climate change on Qeqertarsuaq/ Disko Island”, as part of the ESRC’s (European Social Research Council) Festival of Social Sciences.

The event was Chaired by Dr Corinna Patterson from the School of HIsLawSoc who firstly introducing Professor Robin Grove-White, whose career has been dedicated to environmental justice and to deepening the socio-environmental understanding of environmental issues. Currently Professor Emeritus of Environment and Society at Lancaster University (having been director of the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC) at Lancaster between 1991 and 2004) and Chair of the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates at Bangor University.  Professor Grove-White was also Director of CPRE (The Countryside Charity) and Chairman of Greenpeace UK during the 1970s and 1980s.

Professor Grove-White then introduced Dr Pelle Tejsner, Assistant Professor and postdoctoral research fellow with the Arctic Research Center (ARC) from Aarhus University, Denmark.  Dr Tesjner proceeded to give a captivating account of how climate change is affecting people on Qeqertarsuaq or what is also captivatingly called ‘Disko Island’, situated in Greenland.

Dr Pelle Tejsne’s talk highlighted how the dramatic climatic changes that are occurring in the Artic are affecting the region’s ecosystem are also affecting indigenous people’s livelihoods and relationship to ‘place’. The Qeqertarsuarmiut’s (local Inuit communities of Disko Island) traditional perception of themselves as custodians of the local environment and its resources is now being threatened by the interests of the state and multinational companies as the melting glaciers and sea ice has opened up the region to increased shipping, tourism and resource extraction.  The focus of Pelle Tejsner’s talk was looking at what the impact these changes were having on indigenous communities, their perceptions of themselves as custodians of the environment, and how they are practically and emotionally adapting to the changing landscape. Despite the serious nature of the talk however, it’s focus was on the ingenuity and resilience of human beings to adapt to rapid climate change, offering a little much needed optimism within the wider climate crisis discussions.

Publication date: 7 December 2021