"The hottest summer ever!": exploring vulnerability to climate change among grain producers in Eastern Norway

Abstract

This chapter revisits tensions between Norway’s image as a climate-resilient society and the reality of vulnerability among farmers in Eastern Norway. Over the past decade, farmers in Eastern Norway have introduced various measures to adapt to climate variability and extreme events related to heavy rain. The summer of 2018, however, represented an unusual challenge – it was an ‘extreme’ extreme event of prolonged heat and very little rainfall. New records were set, with May temperature 5°C–6°C above average. Neither farmers nor institutions in the farming sector were prepared for the vulnerability made visible by the summer of 2018. According to climate models, the probability of similar summers in the future has already doubled and will continue to increase as emissions rise. In the chapter, we discuss some key insights based on farmers’ experiences in 2018. We first explore the uneven impacts and differential responses among grain farmers in Eastern Norway, both individually and collectively. We then consider the extent to which responses to ‘the hottest summer ever’ in Eastern Norway were transformative, assessing them in relation to the practical, political, and personal spheres of transformation. Finally, we consider some implications of this changing vulnerability landscape for the future. This study shows the importance of institutional responses and a culture of cooperation in reducing vulnerability, and it draws attention to the importance of linking environmental risks with the social, economic, and political processes that are contributing to vulnerability in the first place.