ABSTRACT
In the large amount of research conducted comparing perceptions of climate change among scientists and among the Inuit, conspicuous differences can be noted between Nunavut (Canada) and Greenland, between north and west Greenland, between urban and rural residents, and between local Inuit and Inuit activists operating in the international arena. In part the differences can be explained by scientific research taking a more global perspective than local knowledge. Opposing political and economic agendas also contribute to contrasting assessments of climate change. This chapter discusses divergences and discrepancies between local knowledge and scientific knowledge from a sociocultural perspective. An examination of divergences and discrepancies evinces the existence of more than just a contradistinction of “one-world” and “multiple worlds.” There is an assumption of an Inuit one-world that is in reality a melange of multiple Inuit worlds. The multiplicity of the Inuit world is represented in the dichotomous perceptions of climate change between Greenland and Nunavut. Politically mobilized local knowledge in Nunavut reveals a world different from that of Greenland. In the context of perceptions of, and responses to, climate change, this chapter explores the status and political ramifications of local knowledge in Greenland and Nunavut with reference to “multiple worlds.”
