NASA Hosts Native Peoples Workshop to Study Climate Change
PRESS RELEASE Date Released:
Monday, November 16, 2009
Source: NASA HQ - Comments
WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a second national strategies workshop to examine the impacts of climate change and extreme weather variability on native peoples and their homelands. The workshop, which will study the impacts from an indigenous cultural, spiritual and scientific perspective, will take place Nov. 18 - 21 at the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minn.
"This workshop will bring native indigenous knowledge together with science, education, and technologies to address the challenges of climate and environmental change," said Nancy Maynard of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The workshop will help ensure participation by tribal colleges and universities in the development of response and adaptation policies and recommendations regarding climate change. The goal is to ensure the survival of indigenous communities. The workshop is being held in collaboration with the nation's 36 tribally-controlled colleges and universities, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, and other partners.
"Tribal college students represent many of the future tribal leaders who will inherit the consequences of climate change and be responsible for implementing the adaptation strategies," said Dan Wildcat of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. "It is critical that they have these kinds of opportunities to participate in key climate change discussions and build their science, technology, engineering and math skills."
