The centuries old specific narrative about the Arctic region is a paradox: on the one hand, the area is portrayed as a periphery empty of people, as terra nullius. At the same time, it is imagined as a cornucopia, a horn of plenty, and a “resource frontier” from which riches can be extracted. The indigenous population in the Arctic is often presented as having a special connection to nature, that is, as being “people of nature.” This has often been done by dichotomous constructions. Thus, situating indigenous peoples on the outside of culture and politics.
Continue reading “Sustainable well-being of indigenous peoples in the Arctic”How to make our campus environmentally smarter? Views from students and staff in Viikki
For many of us who work in Viikki, there is a combined interest in advancing environmental sustainability goals through our research and pedagogic work and as individuals or members of communities. But how environmentally smart is the Viikki campus itself, including the practices of those who work and study there? There is a lot of advice out there how choices related to consumption or organizing of work can help to reduce the environmental footprint (e.g. carbon, water or non-renewable materials), but how do these translate to our everyday practices? Where could we do better in this regard?
Continue reading “How to make our campus environmentally smarter? Views from students and staff in Viikki”Should I be blogging right now?
Being a researcher can, at times, feel like being trapped in an endless loop: proposals’ writing – research execution – results dissemination – repeat. This is just briefly interrupted by much deserved, as well as ephemeral holidays (and yet, I am writing this during my summer vacation). Also, there is the teaching, the networking, the peer-reviewing: all sorts of academic duties crowding an already over-populated calendar. We all know – scarce resources should be used parsimoniously, and time is the scarcest of them all for a researcher.
Continue reading “Should I be blogging right now?”“We need the reaction like there was a fire in the kitchen”
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Ms. Patricia Espinosa presented this quote in the intersessional meeting, which took place in Bonn, Germany from 17-27 June in 2019. I attended the meeting in Bonn as a non-governmental observer as part of the delegation for University of Helsinki. Ms. Espinosa’s idea summarizes the atmosphere of the conference: we are in a hurry and we need to do more. We have a crisis called climate change that is influencing our own life, yet our response is not fast enough. If there would be a fire in the kitchen, how many of us would wait and watch our house burn? I have to believe that many would step up and take action.
Continue reading ““We need the reaction like there was a fire in the kitchen””Microplastics from a sustainability point of view
The two words “microplastics” and “sustainability” in this headline are nowadays used by everyone nearly every day. But what do these two words really mean for us and what is the connection between these “words” in relation to our own life?
Continue reading “Microplastics from a sustainability point of view”