Climate change, impacts, and adaptation efforts in the context of Tanzania.

In October, Leikny Bakke Lie, one of our PhD students, was one of the lucky ones selected to attend the 2024 CATER Schools on Transdisciplinary Climate Risk and Action in Arusha, Tanzania. The primary aim of the CATER school is to support and enhance transdisciplinary cooperation for mutual learning across countries and disciplines. By inviting PhD students, early-career researchers, lecturers and practitioners, the school provides an excellent space for linking science and action, and for knowledge-sharing on topics relating to climate change and action.

Some reflections from Leikny on the CATER School 2024:

The course consisted of 11 days focused on transdisciplinary climate risk and action, diving into topics such as the physical climate science, honest brokerage of climate information, serious gaming, transdisciplinarity in practice, and transgressive approaches to power, climate, and justice. One of the highlights of the course was our field visit to a Maasai community, where we learned about how climate change is impacting their livelihood and how they are attempting to adapt in the face of climate risk. Illustrating the value of broadening your horizon through attending schools such as CATER, I was able to transform this experience with the Maasai community into a lecture for my students in the course Climate change and resilient societies at UiT- The Arctic University of Norway when I got back home to Tromsø.

We also visited the Arusha Climate Environmental Research Centre at the Aga Khan University campus to hear about their community-based research, which focuses on co-creating knowledge and understanding the needs of the communities as the starting point for their research. Adapting to a changing climate and its impacts will largely necessitate community collaboration, and hearing from Dr. Emmanuel Sulle provided valuable insight that I take with me into my upcoming research.

I highly recommend attending workshops and schools such as the CATER School, it is a massive learning experience, your horizon will be broadened, and your network expanded. Also, you get to meet some inspiring and knowledgeable people along the way that makes the journey even more enjoyable. Oh, and a fun fact: since Mount Kilimanjaro was located right next to our course premises, I couldn’t resist the urge to attempt to climb the roof of Africa. And on the 17th of October, I summited Mount Kilimanjaro at 5895 meters above sea level! I feel very privileged and extremely thankful in that my PhD journey allow me to embark on these adventures that facilitates not only academic growth but tremendous personal growth and development as well. Asante Sana.

- Leikny

CliCNord-paper on the role of memory and place attachment

We can finally share the most recent publication from our CliCNord research project: "Years Matter: The Role of Memory and Place Attachment in Remote Nordic Areas Facing Natural Hazards." In this publication, we have explored some common themes across five of the cases involved in CliCNord, more specifically examining the role of memory and place attachment in these five Nordic communities that experience frequent natural hazard events.

Title: Years Matter: The Role of Memory and Place Attachment in Remote Nordic Areas Facing Natural Hazards.

Authors: Matthias Kokorsch, Rico Kongsager, Leikny Bakke Lie, Nina Baron, and Kerstin Eriksson.

Abstract
Remembrance, commemoration, and specific dates play an important role in many societies and cultures. They can be about positively connotated events with societal impacts, such as reunifications or the gaining of independence, but also disastrous or other devastating events on a national or international scale. In disaster risk areas, there are various ways such events are addressed. While for some communities they are an active part of the local history and the living memory, other communities tend to neglect or disregard such events. By applying a classification system, building on the ideas of Assmann (2011) and Halbwachs (1992), we identify active and passive forms of remembering in five case study areas in the Nordic countries. We investigate the possible positive and negative outcomes of the collective and cultural memory and how they relate to place attachment as well as capacity building. An example of positive outcomes is an even closer-knit community, exhibiting place-protective behavior, that learns from past events and is better prepared for future disasters. A negative example at the local scale is willful blindness and the neglect of any risk. However, the society outside an affected settlement is also important in the creation and manifestation of the collective and cultural memory: stigmatization and ascription can be negative side effects. Small and remote communities may be recognized by society at large for only one point in time—a year and a disaster—thus sidelining the positive attributes of such communities.

The article can be read in full here: Years Matter: The Role of Memory and Place Attachment in Remote Nordic Areas Facing Natural Hazards.

This project has received funding from the NordForsk Nordic Societal Security Programme under Grant Agreement No. 97229

Reflecting on 2024 with CICERO

We recently had the pleasure of reflecting on the year 2024, summarized neatly in CICERO's monthly magazine and newsletter, Magasinet KLIMA.

Several extreme weather events occurred across our elongated country in 2024, many of whom were related to water and extreme precipitation episodes. One of the events that got a lot of attention was the flood that occurred in Telemark this summer, an event that was not warned about in advance and had large consequences locally. And in Tromsø, we had a rather unusual event for the time of the year in November, with a large amount of precipitation combined with high temperatures. Precipitation and rapid snowmelt lead to local flood events and a large debris flow, damaging roads and hiking paths.

We had a chat with CICERO about this past year and how weather- and climate events are and can be handled locally, based on our most recent research projects.

Follow this link for the full story (Only in Norwegian): Over alle støvleskaft

- Leikny

Are Kristoffer Sydnes  –  Professor

Laurien de Korte  –  Doctoral Research Fellow

Leikny Bakke Lie  –  Doctoral Research Fellow

Maria Sydnes  –  Associate professor

Christer Henrik Pursiainen  –  Professor of Societal Security

Bjarte Rød  –  Postdoctoral researcher

Stian K. Kleiven  –  PhD-fellow