The Calotte Academy 2008 Final Report by Lassi Heininen, Heather Nicol and Urban Wråkberg The Calotte Academy 2008 took place in May 22-26, 2008 in Inari, Finland, in Kirkenes Norway and in Murmansk, Russia. The main theme of the 2008 Calotte Academy was Climate Change Defining Human Security The integrated sub-themes, which were discussed in the public sessions, were: “Climate change as a new discipline for disciplining?”, “Climate change and livelihoods”, “Climate change and indigenous peoples”, “Climate change, oil drilling and transportation”, “Climate change and alternative energy” and “Climate change, sovereignty and international law”. The main goals of the 2008 Academy were as follows: First, to highlight and disseminate general scientific information and knowledge about impacts of climate change, and to open discussion on human responses to climate change. The second goal was define what might be considered as the influences of climate change on human security, to ask what is meant by human security in light of climate change; and to encourage both academic discourse and political discussion on relations between these two phenomena. The third goal was to promote the interplay between science and politics by having a policy-oriented discussion and dialogue on climate change, human security and their inter-relations,(in areas such as such as legislation, community planning, livelihoods and human health ,and between groups such as policy-makers, academics, civil activists and business leaders.) The fourth and final goal was to have the Academy serve as a platform for open discussion on relevant Northern issues in general and especially dealing with the NRF Open Assemblies. The 2008 Academy was co-organized by Municipality of Inari, the Saami Educational Centre, the Learning Centre of Calotte, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Finnbarents at University of Lapland, and the Thule Institute at the University of Oulu (from Finland); the Barents Institute (from Norway); and the Murmansk Humanities Institute and the Institute of Economic Studies at the Kola Science Centre (from Russia); and the Northern Research Forum (NRF). Back-to-back with the Calotte Academy 2008 there was one day’s workshop of the Nordic-Russian research project “Northern Eurasian Geopolitics”, which started in 2007. T HE 2008 C ALOTTE ACADEMY WAS SUPPORTED BY THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT AND THE M UNICIPALITY OF INARI, FINLAND General outcomes and results There were in total, six public sessions which took place in three countries: Inari, Finland, Kirkenes, Norway and and Murmansk, Russia. There were all together twenty-seven presentations by scholars, policy-makers and other experts from Canada, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Russia Also among the speakers were six post-graduate and doctoral students from Canada, Finland, Iceland and Russia, altogether there were nine young researchers who participated in the sessions of the 2008 Academy). In addition, from outside the academic community, there were participants representing different stakeholders such as national and regional policy-makers in Inari (e.g. Environment Committee at the Finnish Parliament, Lapland’s TE Centre, Lapland’s Environment Centre, business community in Kirkenes (e.g. Port of Akureyri) and NGOs in Murmansk (e.g. Bellona-Murmansk). The number of participants who in each location was, on average, between twenty and thirty-five. The core group (most of them speakers and organizers) remained with the Academy for the entire journey, while others participated at specific location but did not travel on the the next. The Calotte Academy 2008 got rather good publicity and media coverage, particularly in Russia where there were two regional/local TV-channels, two regional/local radio channels and two or three regional/local newspapers covering the meetings. In Inari and Kirkenes the local newspaper was present to report on the meetings, but no television, or radio representatives, unlike Murmansk, The proceedings of the Calotte Academy 2007 were broadly distributed in the sessions of the Academy 2008. Encouraged by several proposals there was a tentative plan to make a scientific publication on climate change and human security based on the presentations of the 2008 Academy under the auspices of the research project “Northern Eurasian Geopolitics. Consequently, the speakers were asked to submit both an abstract and a written version of their presentation for the 2008 publication. Relevant findings on the main theme The main theme Climate Change Defining Human Security contained several questions designed to stimulate discussion at all sessions: The first was “Is climate change a threat for human kind, and if it is, is the Empire able to strike back?” And does it strike? Further, is climate change a challenge for the interplay between science and politics-- i.e. a question of dialogue-building? The second theme dealt with the fact that reports on climate change are very-much based on scenarios, but as climate change proceeds, more and more facts are available. How accurate are scenarios, given the new array of evidence? Is the fit good, or is there a (need for a) balance? The third question was what is the impact of climate change on global, national, regional and local levels, and how does this support the need for many new strict regulations. That is to say, “what human beings are NOT allowed to do”. Further, what kinds of new questions there might be emerging, like “does climate change mean a change in the definition of security”? “Can climate change become a new discipline for disciplining?”, or “what does it mean to democracy?”. And with respect to the question of whether or not climate change is a new discipline for disciplining – the question is whether or not we need to define the societal, political and legal impacts of climate change? Or is the point application not regulation? Fourth, followed from these issues are (new) questions, such as “is climate change necessarily first of all a negative thing?”, or “does climate change make the North as a victim which needs sympathy and support form outside the region?”. “Does climate change actually give a change for post- colonial influence by outsiders to the development of the region?” “Is there a relevant, cumulative relationship between climate change and demography?” Fifth, climate change influences first, traditional (micro-scale) livelihoods, such as fishing and reindeer herding; second, traditional industrial livelihoods such as mining, forestry and the military; third, new (macro-scale) livelihoods such as tourism, oil and gas drilling, and transportation; and fourth, other new livelihoods such as (cold-climate / climate change) research and testing, and “distance working”, a bit like distant learning. Based upon this sequence of effects, it is relevant to study and discuss the impacts and influences of climate change to the region in general, particularly when dealing with (traditional and new) livelihoods. The sixth thematic question dealt with the fact that climate change has its relevant security dimension. For example, it can be seen to impact / influence both human and environmental securities by placing both human settlements and man-made environment under threat, as well as by influencing the legitimacy of state sovereignty. This does not (necessary) mean that it should be interpreted as a threat, but rather a risk. Most of those who study security understand the difference and would agree that there is a comprehensive understanding and definition of security which differs from other definitions of security. The aim of this thematic is to promote discussion about different concepts of security, and a dialogue among those who hold different views. All this brings us to the seventh thematic issue or area of discussion, which focuses on human responses. We start with the question, “is there a solution, and if so, does that solution represent either mitigation or adaptation, or both? If the answer is adaptation, then what we to mean by that, and how to implement it? Further, what kind of adaptation is needed and available, or more precisely, perhaps, what kinds of technologies and policies are needed to develop e.g. ‘risk technology for the Arctic’?” - These issues were discussed within the 2008 Academy sessions, and it became clear that in the North Calotte, at least in Lapland, Kirkenes and Murmansk, there is already an interest and certain readiness to discuss on impacts of climate change for instance influencing livelihoods (e.g. the presentations by Saarela and Tervo). There is, however, not (yet) real readiness among policy-makers to discuss on climate change and human security; - In Northwest Russia, however, at least in the Murmansk Region, discussion on climate change per se is a bit problematic or different, probably because discourse on the idea of the impact of climate change does not yet exist. It would seem that the phenomenon of global warming influenced by human activities, and its impacts are not so well known, although many parts of the Russian North, such as the Saha Republic / Yakutia were some of the first victims of the recent climate change. In addition, the phenomenon of rapid and definite warming of climate due to anthropogenic influence is still scientifically denied by many Russian scientists, who argue that it is a period of natural warming. This denial is partly a result of to the growing strategic and economic importance of the utilization of oil and natural gas to Russia. These influences most probably influenced presentations of some Russian speakers in the sense that they did not really deal with climate change, but when there was an effort to do so it was interesting and important (e.g. Touinova’s and Riabova’s presentations). Consequently, the sessions in Murmansk could be better understood as discussion dealing with an introduction to climate change; - Further, climate change has become a relevant new geopolitical factor in world politics, either when taken as a fact, or considered to be on its way to becoming a fact in the near future.