Climate Change and Changing Values in Norway:

Are there limits to adaptation?

Karen O’Brien

Department of Sociology and Human Geography

University of Oslo, Norway

Values

• Something intrinsically desirable• Context specific vs. universal• Result from psychological needs and social

interactions• Related to needs, worldviews, and structures

and stages of consciousness• Differential• Dynamic

Traditional structures

• Absolutistic values• Mythic and ethnocentric worldview• Conformist self-identity• Rule-dominated cognition

Key concerns related to climate change: loss of cultural identity or group identity

Prioritized adaptations might recognize local knowledge, support traditional sectors and livelihoods, preserve cultural icons.

Modern structures

• Multiplistic values• Rational, worldcentric worldview• Conscientious self-identity• Rational cognition

Key concerns related to climate change: outcomes that affect material well-being

Prioritized adaptations might emphasize technology and draw on results of cost-benefit analyses and future scenarios

Post-modern structures

• Relativistic values• Pluralistic, worldcentric worldview• Individualistic self-identity• Meta-systemic cognition

Key concerns related to climate change: ecosystem integrity, moral and ethical perspectives, social justice and equity.

Prioritized adaptations might focus on the poor and marginalized, future generations, and the role of ecosystem services.

Values in Norway

• Traditional: rural areas, nature, family• Modern: individualism, economic

development, material wealth, technology, scientific progress

• Post-modern: Rejection of social hierarchies, promotion of equity across gender and class, and between rural and urban areas.

Snow cover changes in Norway

• Winter temperature increases of 2.5 – 4oC by 2100;

• More winter precipitation in eastern Norway;• 40% decrease in number of days with

suitable skiing conditions by 2050 (compared to 1981-1999 period)

Traditional values

• Snow cover is important to local and national identity

• Prioritized adaptations might preserve heritage, tradition, and identity (preservation of cultural landscapes and a sense of place)

• Challenge: to transform livelihoods and maintain a sense of community

Modern values

• Snow cover as a medium for winter sports (an important economic sector)

• Prioritized adaptations might focus on snow-making technologies, indoor snow domes, artificially cooled ski tracks

• Challenge: reconstruct or reinvent identity (identify new or niche markets)

Post-modern values• Snow cover as a

component of ecosystem integrity; distant impacts of climate change also a concern

• Prioritized adaptations might focus on adaptive management, building resilience, promoting sustainability.

• Challenge: promote mitigation as a form of adaptation

• Can climate change adaptations take into account a spectrum of values that correspond to diverse human human needs and multiple persectives and worldviews?

• Can climate change adaptations take into account a spectrum of values that correspond to diverse human human needs and multiple persectives and worldviews?

• Whose values count?