How have Indigenous peoples shaped research and planning on climate change? This presentation and discussion will focus on the ways in which Indigenous peoples have transformed the way in which climate change is understood as a major global issue, taking leadership on a range of important projects, policies and actions. This work has implications for graduate students, whether Indigenous or allied, about how they plan their careers in scientific and other scholarly fields pertaining to food and the environment.

Carl Folke, a world-renowned Swedish scientist who focuses on the need for people to be in partnership with nature, will deliver the 2017 Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture.

Dr. Folke is founder and director of science of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Director of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, of which is he is a member. His work focuses on the premise that supporting ecosystems is necessary for social and economic development, stewardship and governing and managing for resilience and transformation in social and ecological systems that are intertwined.

In short, global sustainability demands that humanity remain within Earth’s operating boundaries. The relevant question then becomes: What will it take?