By Emily Southern, science reporter
Eranga Galappaththi, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech, teaches a variety of classes surrounding geography, ecological systems and sustainability.
His research focuses on complex human-environmental system changes and has a strong focus on Indigenous communities across the world.
“I’m trying to understand how Indigenous people or communities experience climate change, specifically within the context of a climate-food-health nexus,” Galappaththi said. “I am also trying to understand the issues and dynamics around how they respond to climate change.”
Galappaththi has strong research partnerships with the Indigenous communities in Sri Lanka, Canada and the Artic. He has published 36 peer-reviewed research articles in leading journals, including The Lancet Planetary Health, Nature Climate Change and One Earth, along with three book chapters. He has contributed to high-profile reports for the United Nations, like the IPCC and FAO. Galappaththi received his doctoral degree from McGill University in Canada.
In an interview last week, Galathappaththi spoke on issues regarding climate change and affected communities.
His comments were slightly edited for length and clarity.
What motivates your passion for focusing on climate change affecting Indigenous communities?
Fifteen years ago, I migrated to Canada because I’m originally from Sri Lanka. After I moved to Canada, I worked in the northern communities reserves which were mostly occupied by Indigenous people.
Within my first three months I connected with those communities. I thought they would be a developed community, but I found that they were a very underdeveloped country. I was very touched, and I connected with those people and that’s how I continued my research with these communities. Slowly after my doctoral degree, I expanded to other countries as well with the help of other researchers and globally connected networks.
Eranga Galappaththi interviewing Indigenous community members in Sri Lanka. Photo courtesy of Eranga Galappaththi.
From your view, what are the biggest impacts of climate change on Indigenous people or minorities?
We have worked with over 100 Indigenous communities internationally and have a network of 14 partner countries as well. Based on this research and the work so far, we found that the way people experience climate change is very different.
Each Indigenous community has their own problems. For example, one community in Sri Lanka might experience tourism related issues because they get more tourists. Indigenous people are used as a tool to do tourism, and they are not given any benefits for doing so. For them, there’s a lot of social power gaps, marginalization, education problems and food security issues.
If you go to the Arctic, they have very different issues. They don’t have roads. They’re isolated communities and they have lot of food related health issues because of nutrition. They’re still highly relying on hunting, trapping and fishing for their food security. It’s because of the isolation and lack of economic opportunities that cause a high level of suicidal rates and high level of drug and violence issues.
These are very complex issues, and each community is affected in different ways. Climate change acts as a central hub for these issues because Indigenous people are still relying on natural systems for their food security.
When they lose their food security it causes food contamination, and they start to face different food related health impacts as well. That’s why I study a nexus of climate-food-health. These topics are interconnected especially when it comes to rural communities.
In your view, why do some individuals remain unconvinced about the reality of climate change?
I travel to places that specifically experience climate change. For example, in the Arctic you can see climate change because these places are totally covered with ice. They experience global warming at a very high level, so when they lose ice and lose their food, it’s obvious that it is real.
The problem is people have trouble believing in something that they can’t see. It’s all evidence based and it has a high-level of research. I contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment reports, and we know it’s real.
Have you seen any like climate change impacts in Blacksburg, Virginia?
I moved from Canada in 2021, and we got a really good snow here that winter. I was so happy. The next couple of years, we have gotten less and less snow each year, at least to my standards.
I’ve heard from a lot of elders here in Blacksburg, that have said we used to get a lot of snow in Blacksburg, but now we don’t. That’s one observation that I have made during my time here. Another thing I have noticed is the predictions. They’re sometimes inaccurate which could be a result of climate change impacts.
How do you think educators could better integrate Indigenous knowledge or concepts into student learning?
Most people limit their education to western knowledge systems. There are non-western knowledge systems like Indigenous knowledge, local knowledge and other knowledge systems. We need to go beyond science to integrate those systems. For example, I invite some of the Indigenous researchers and Indigenous community members to give guest talks with my students, so they get that opportunity.
My aim is to not only deliver knowledge to students, but to create a core learning environment. This makes an equal base learning environment. I want to learn, and they want to learn as well. It turns into a group learning environment; it’s not just reading and studying a textbook.
Do you include approaches or perspectives in your teaching that weren’t part of your own education?
I’m trying to integrate a lot of community perspectives and non-western type of perspectives. I’m really just trying to bring different perspectives into my classroom which was something I didn’t experience.
What advice would you give students who want to pursue research or careers focused on climate resilience and sustainability?
In any research, it’s very important to integrate multiple perspectives and to respect all of them.
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