ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ontological politics embedded in the use of global discourses on environmental change. It discusses climate change, ecosystem services and ecotourism with a focus on their societal dimension. One of the main challenges was to transform the long temporal scope of climate change studies into locally meaningful weather events and to translate the concept of ecosystem services into understandable environmental benefits and changes for local tourism entrepreneurs. Another important challenge was related to the effect of global discourses that could easily have suppressed local concerns about the nearby mining development of Talvivaara by keeping a narrow focus on the predetermined global climate change research agenda. The chapter explores and discusses the reasons and mechanisms behind these two challenges and to propose solutions for taking local concerns better into account in science and policy concerned with global change. Finally, the chapter discusses the role of the transdisciplinary researcher in improving communication and local agency.
