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Science Forum Index » Environment Forum » global warming killing Inuit
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| Jim Norton |
 Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 9:44 am |
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1104241,00.html
Global warming is killing us too, say Inuit
Paul Brown in Milan
Thursday December 11, 2003
The Guardian
The Inuit people of Canada and Alaska are launching a human rights case against
the Bush administration claiming they face extinction because of global
warming.
By repudiating the Kyoto protocol and refusing to cut US carbon dioxide
emissions, which make up 25% of the world's total, Washington is violating
their human rights, the Inuit claim.
For their campaign they are inviting the Washington-based Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights to visit the Arctic circle to see the devastation
being caused by global warming.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the chairwoman of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which
represents all 155,000 of her people inside the Arctic circle, said: "We want
to show that we are not powerless victims. These are drastic times for our
people and require drastic measures."
The human rights case was announced at the climate talks in Milan, Italy, where
140 countries are trying to put the finishing touches to the Kyoto protocol,
the first international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. The backing of
Russia, which is hesitating about ratifying the agreement, is required to bring
the protocol into force. The US is trying to persuade the Russian president,
Vladimir Putin, not to sign the protocol.
The Inuit have no voice at the conference, since they are not a nation state,
but Mrs Watt-Cloutier said: "We are already bearing the brunt of climate change
- without our snow and ice our way of life goes. We have lived in harmony with
our surroundings for millennia, but that is being taken away from us.
"People worry about the polar bear becoming extinct by 2070 because there will
be no ice from which they can hunt seals, but the Inuit face extinction for the
same reason and at the same time.
"This a David and Goliath story. Most people have lost contact with the natural
world. They even think global warming has benefits, like wearing a T-shirt in
November, but we know the planet is melting and with it our vibrant culture,
our way of life. We are an endangered species, too."
Mrs Watt-Cloutier comes from Pangirtung, north of Iqaluit, in Canada. The
entire area should already be ice-bound, and winter hunting would normally have
begun, but in Frobisher Bay, the home of both polar bears and Inuit, the water
is still clear. "We now have weeks of uncertainty about when the ice will
come," she said. "In the spring the ice melts not at the end of June but weeks
earlier. Sometimes the ice is so thin hunters fall through.
"The ocean is too warm. Our elders, who instruct the young on the ways of the
winter and what to expect, are at a loss. Last Christmas after the ice had
formed the temperature rose to 4C [39F] and it rained. We'd never known it
before."
Among the problems the Inuit face is permafrost melting, which has destroyed
the foundations of houses, eroded the seashore and forced people to move
inland. Airport runways, roads and harbours are also collapsing.
The Washington-based commission, which is the Americas' equivalent of the
European court of human rights, will be asked to rule against the US government
but has no power to enforce any action. However, the Inuit believe the
publicity the case will provide, particularly with hearings in Washington, will
embarrass George Bush's government and educate US public opinion about the
consequences of profligate ways of living.
"Europeans understand this issue but in America the public know little or
nothing and politicians are in denial," Mrs Watt-Cloutier said. "We are hunters
and we are trained to go for the heart. The heart of the problem is in
Washington."
She hoped that by winning the case Inuit would win a voice at climate talks.
"The Inuit people see me as one of the leaders, with the same status as the
ministers here. As a nation we are badly affected by climate change, but in
these negotiations we have no voice.
"We intend to get one so our representative can sit round the table with other
ministers and demand action to save our people."
Arctic dwellers
· Inuit means "the people" and is the generic name given to indigenous people
of the Arctic. Though the word "eskimo", meaning "eaters of raw meat", is still
used to described Inuit, it is generally considered derogatory.
· Inuit populations include Canadian Inuit, Alaska's Inupiat and Yupik people,
and the Russian Yupik.
· Inuit are descendants of the Thule people who arrived in Alaska about AD500
and reached Canada in 1000. Alaskan Inuit now live mainly in the North Slope
boroughs and the Bering Straits region.
· Inuit rely heavily on subsistence fishing and hunting whales, walruses and
seals.
· The arrival of Europeans damaged the traditional Inuit way of life and since
the 1970s their leaders have been campaigning for greater rights and asserting
their territorial claims.
· In more recent times Inuit have banded together to fight against
environmental damage to their homelands. |
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| Larry Caldwell |
| Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 3:29 pm |
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jimn469897@aol.com (Jim Norton) writes:
Quote: We have lived in harmony with
our surroundings for millennia, but that is being taken away from us.
Well, a few hundred years, at least. At least in their current location,
which they inhabited after the little ice age.
--
http://home.teleport.com/~larryc |
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