Krupnik, Igor and Dyanna Jolly (eds) 2002 The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change. Fairbanks: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS). xxvii, figures, photos, maps, tables, appendix. 356 pages.

Editors Igor Krupnik and Dyanna Jolly have collected 10 chapters, each with notes and references, in The Earth is Faster Now. The book takes the emerging field of climate change and the documentation of traditional knowledge (TK) as its focus. It discusses eight research projects associated with climate change science in the Arctic to show that science can be improved with "Indigenous Observations." The book is not exhaustive — there are many communities, other projects and elders whose knowledges collectively would improve what we know and how we talk about climate change. Those listening for Native voices will not have to strain too hard to hear them. It may seem bold but this book asserts social scientists in the position of narrators for Aboriginal cultures, whose disciplinary languages and interpretations are taken as a legitimate and authoritative platform to speak in the models and formalized discussions of climate change. I will return to this thread in a moment, but first should point out that the collection of essays broadly asserts, to some extent as criticism of physical scientists regarding their impotence on climate change policy, that Indigenous populations have geographically specific local observations. Indigenous knowledge as TK is gaining currency in the construction of research projects, according to this book, just as it has gained greater use in environmental assessments, government decision-making and so on. Furthermore, the authors in this book rightly posit that science which continues to negate TK will be left out of the development of practical policies addressing important questions on climate change. The authors suggest several paths for scientists, students, and government administrators to follow when it comes to codifying Indigenous observations of climate change, but just whose version of these observations this will be is left unproblematized, unquestioned, and therefore uncertain. Northern Indigenous Nations have talked about climate change long before Kyoto and global warming became popularized. One thing that readers of this book need to consider is that knowledge held by Gwich’in, in each of their communities, is geographically distinct. Culturally specific, Yupiit and Inuvialuit share some similarities, but also are culturally and geographically different from each other, and this holds true for their Dene and Metis neighbours. It is interesting to review the chapter by Nickels et al., and the ITK-IISD workshop on indigenous observations should be applauded. While the authors offer helpful methods on climate change research, we need to guard against overgeneralization to a pan northern set of observations on climate change, which of course do not exist, and if accepted uncritically will serve to negate the diversity of observations that exist. It is the very diversity of views and languages which makes northern cultural ecology robust. An impressive chapter is Krupnik’s observations on Yupik knowledge, which he argues is at best patchy (p. 179). "Watching Ice and Weather Our Way: Some Lessons from Yupik Observations of Sea Ice and Weather on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska" should be read and re-read, for Krupnik makes important distinctions between framing Indigenous knowledge into scientific ways of thinking versus documenting Indigenous knowledge in a way that more closely resembles Indigenous ways of being. The contributors in this book push the boundaries of the physical and natural sciences, who have historically housed climate change research, to consider the important contributions of TK in a number of ways; not restricted to applications as data for climate change models, but also as different ways in which the Arctic is known and changes to the environment are perceived and understood. Read independently, each chapter has something different to say about current debates in social science research. …