Oregon Public Broadcasting

A University of Idaho geography professor is turning to far northern Europe to find answers to climate change in the Northwest.

Harley Johansen is studying how Arctic towns are dealing with challenges posed by warming temperatures. Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

Harley Johansen says the geographic clock in northern Scandinavia and northwestern Russia is off kilter. Everything from animal migration patterns to freezing and thawing are changing.

While that sounds scary, Johansen says climate change offers opportunities.

Harley Johansen: “New agricultural possibilities with the longer growing season.”

And challenges too. In northern Europe, those obstacles may be different than in the northwest U.S. But he says communities here can learn a lot about how to adjust their industries and economies to the changing climate.

Harley Johansen: “Because they've been dealing with this longer, it could be useful to pick their brains, so to speak, on what we should expect and what we might do about it here.”

Johansen's study is funded by a new National Science Foundation grant. He'll travel to far northern Europe during the next year. He plans to share what he finds in academic papers.