PhD Candidate and SSHRC Vanier Scholar
Global Environmental Change Group, Department of Geography – University of Guelph
UNBC Alumni – International Studies 2003

 

Addressing Community Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in Northern Regions

 

Tristan Pearce, a native of Prince George and UNBC graduate, is a PhD Candidate with the Global Environmental Change Group in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph. His research focuses on the vulnerability and adaptations of communities and socio-economic systems to global environmental changes, especially climate change. This interdisciplinary and applied research has been undertaken primarily in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) in the western Canadian Arctic.

Canada’s northern regions are at the forefront of climate change with implications for ecosystems, industry, and communities. In the Arctic, scientific measurements and local observations have documented changes including increases in temperature, reductions in sea ice thickness and extent, increases in precipitation, and increases in the frequency and magnitude of hazardous conditions, including those associated with permafrost thaw, coastal erosion, ice stability, unpredictable weather, and increasing exposure to storms along the Arctic coast. These changes are having implications for Canada’s Inuit population, the majority of who live in small, remote, coastal communities, and continue to depend on the harvesting of fish and wildlife for part of their livelihoods. Impacts such as compromised food security and health status, loss of life and serious injury, constrained transportation access and travel routes to hunting areas, damage to municipal infrastructure, and inability to practice traditional cultural activities have already been recorded and can be expected to continue as the arctic climate changes. Given these documented changes and predicted future impacts, climate change adaptation planning has become increasingly important to governments and communities.

To initiate adaptation actions, decision makers need to know the nature of vulnerability, in terms of who and what is vulnerable, to what stresses and in what way, and also what the capacity of the system is to adapt to changing conditions. In his work as a PhD researcher and as a consultant with ArcticNorth Consulting, Tristan works with northern communities, industry, NGOs, and government to answer these questions and to help facilitate adaptation planning. This community-driven approach to research is designed to involve stakeholders throughout the research process and to engage the knowledge and expertise in communities to establish appropriate measures to plan for, and adapt to, current and expected future climate change.

Recent publications that report on his research in Arctic Canada include:

Pearce, T., Smit, B., Duerden, F., Ford, J., Goose, A., Kataoyak, F. (2009). Inuit Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. Polar Record, 45(3): 1-21.

Pearce, T., Ford, J., Laidler, G., Smit, B., Duerden, F., Allarut, M., Andrachuk, M., Baryluk, S., Dialla, A., Elee, P., Goose, A.; Ikummaq, T., Inuktalik, R., Joamie, E., Kataoyak, F., Loring, E., Meakin, S., Nickels, S., Scott, A., Shappa, K., Shirley, J., Wandel, J. (2009). Community Research Collaboration in the Canadian Arctic. Polar Research, 28: 10-27.

Ford, J., Pearce, T., Gilligan, J., Smit, B. and Oakes, J. (2008). Climate Change and Hazards Associated with Ice Use in Northern Canada. Arctic and Alpine Research, 40(4): 647-659.