Ways to Help and Ways to Hinder:

Climate, Health, and Food Security in Alaska

A Thesis

Presented to the Faculty
of the University of Alaska Fairbanks

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

by
Philip A Loring, M.A.
Fairbanks, Alaska
May 2010

Dissertation:
http://www.archive.org/details/WaysToHelpAndWaysToHinderClimateHealthAndFoodSecurityInAlaska
(4.48 MB)

Video of Defense

Abstract:

This dissertation explores various ecological, socioeconomic, sociopolitical, physical dimensions food security in Alaska. The context for this work is dramatic climatic change and ongoing demographic, socioeconomic and cultural transitions in Alaska's rural and urban communities. The unifying focus of the papers included here are human health. I provide multiple perspectives on how human health relates to community and ecosystem health, and of the roles of managers, policy makers, and researchers can play in supporting positive health outcomes. Topics include methylmercury (MeHg) contamination of wild fish, the impacts of changes to Alaskan landscapes and seascapes on subsistence and commercial activities, and on ways to design sustainable natural resource policies and co-management regimes such that they mimic natural systems. The operating premise of this work is that sustainability is ostensibly a matter of human health; the finding is that human health can provide asocial and ecological sustainability research.