Researchers collect indigenous stories to fill climate change data gaps

(Reuters, 29 Apr 2016) Canadian scientists have collected stories from more than 90,000 people whose traditional ways of life rely on nature, in an effort to capture signs of climate change where weather stations are absent.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, fill a knowledge gap in climate change science, which is dominated by data and computer models, said the six researchers from Simon Fraser University.

Western climate data tends to be absent from places like Central Africa, Central America and the Himalayas, Dana Lepofsky, co-author of the paper, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "But we have some people data."

In all, the researchers gathered observations covering 137 countries that were contained in more than 1,000 published studies.

Their approach to studying climate change reflects an emerging trend among Western researchers to tap into climate knowledge recorded by people who have subsisted off the land and oceans, often for lifetimes or generations, noted Lepofsky.

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Reuters, 29 Apr 2016: Researchers collect indigenous stories to fill climate change data gaps