The “Indigenous People, Climate Change, and Environmental Knowledge” conference at the University of Oregon kicks off Wednesday May 23 with a keynote at 7 pm in the Many Nations Longhouse. UO History Professor Mark Carey, the co-organizer of the conference, says he sees a lack of understanding in the general public about the impacts of climate change on indigenous people. 

 “Native peoples are disproportionately affected by climate change,” says Carey, who teaches the new UO Honors College course Climate and Culture in the Americas. Larry Merculieff, deputy director of the Alaska Native Science Commission, and Daniel Wildcat, a Yuchi member and professor of American Indian Studies at Haskell Indian Nations University, speak 7 pm  May 23 at the UO’s Many Nations Longhouse and the conference continues on Thursday, May 24 with an additional keynote address at 9 am in the UO Fir Room, followed by student presentations and three student panels: Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change, Cultural Perspectives and Responses to Climate Change, and Cultural Impacts and Climate Education. The conference rounds out a year of events for The Americas in a Globalized World series, part of the UO Big Ideas initiative. The conference is free and open to the public, for more information, visit uoclimateconference.wordpress.com and for a full story, see this week’s EW.

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