No abstract

Governance, Reform, Natural resource policy, Climate change policy, The Internet, National security policy, Development aid policy, Health care policy,

Warming of the arctic climate is having a substantial impact on the Alaskan North Slope coastal region. The warming is associated with increasing amounts of open water in the arctic seas, rising sea level, and thawing permafrost. Coastal geography and increasing development along the coastline are contributing to increased vulnerability of infrastructure, utilities, and supplies of food and gasoline to storms, flooding, and coastal erosion. Secondary impacts of coastal flooding may include harm to animals and their land or sea habitats, if pollutants are released. Further, Inupiat subsistence harvesting of marine sources of food, offshore resource extraction, and marine transportation may be affected. This paper describes a project to understand, support, and enhance the local decision-making process on the North Slope of Alaska on socioeconomic issues that are influenced by warming, climate variability, and extreme weather events.

The policy movement is unified by a common interest in the improvement of policy decisions through scientific inquiry. The movement is differentiated, however, because this common interest is highly ambiguous and subject to interpretation from different perspectives. This paper applies a policy sciences perspective to the movement's disappointments over the last few decades, and in particular, the failure to realize earlier aspirations for rational, objective analysis on the more important and controversial policy issues. The paper offers a definition and diagnosis of the underlying problem, and suggests what can be done about it as a matter of individual and collective choice.