The Canadian Environment Awards Citation of Lifetime Achievement
Remarks by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Vancouver, BC
Canada
June 5, 2006
Good evening. I am very pleased to be here in Vancouver and deeply honoured by this Canadian Environment Awards Citation of Lifetime Achievement. I thank the selection committee of the Canadian Geographic and all involved. I also thank HP Canada for their contribution to this citation. This citation encourages me to continue to move the issues forward, to continue to speak about the place of the Arctic in global environmental debate, and to bring the knowledge and wisdom of Inuit to bear on decisions.
I was elected to represent the Inuit of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland internationally through the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. From 1995 to 2002 I was President of ICC in Canada, and in 2002 I was elected to Chair the whole organization.
Inuit from the four nations meet in Barrow Alaska next month. This is when I finish my term and withdraw from politics, at least for a time. Over the coming year I am going to reflect on my journey through life, and think about where the Arctic is going and the future of Inuit as a people and a culture. I also want to write about my experiences.
I want to talk a little about Canada and the Arctic, and about climate changesurely the defining issue of our times.
My core message is that we are all connected. The Arctic is geographically isolated from the rest of the world, yet the Inuk hunter who falls through the thinning sea ice is connected to melting glaciers in the Andes and the Himalayas, and to the flooding of low-lying and small island states. So, think of foreign policy and environmental policy in the same breath.
Both Canada and the United States have signed and ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The conventions objective, and I am quoting, is to:
Stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.
Fine words, but dangerous climate change is already taking place in Canada--in the Arctic. Already our food productionhunting, fishing and gatheringis threatened. The objective of the convention is being breached here and now in Canada--in the Arctic.
The Arctic is important in the global climate change debate. Almost three years ago the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) passed a resolution urging greater global attention to the Arctic. Last year the Arctic was singled out in the G8 communiqu. Why? Because the Arctic is the worlds climate change barometer. Inuit are the mercury in that barometer. What is happening in the Arctic now will happen soon further south. And what is the Arctic barometer saying?
Well, for more than 20 years Inuit hunters and elders have reported melting permafrost, thinning sea ice, receding glaciers, invasion of species of animals not previously seengrizzly bears are coming much further north than previously, and are even mating with polar bears--increased coastal erosion, longer and warmer summers, and shorter winters. The magnitude of these changes varies from place to place, but the trend is consistent.
Climate change affects virtually every facet of Inuit lifewe are a people of the land, ice, snow, and animals. Our hunting culture depends upon and thrives on the cold. Already we are having difficulty adapting to environmental changes as a result of climate change. Hunters have fallen through the thinning sea ice traveling in places traditionally safe.
Responding, in part, to Inuit observations, Ministers of foreign affairs of the eight-nation Arctic Council in October 2000 authorized an Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA).
The ACIA was prepared over four years by more than 300 scientists from 15 countries with the close co-operation of Inuit, Sami, Gwichin, Athabascans, Aleut, and Indigenous peoples in Russia. When released in November 2004, newspapers around the world printed photos of melting glaciers, disappearing summer sea ice and stressed polar bears.
Basically, the ACIA says:
1. climate change is happening in the Arctic now;
2. it is quickly going to get worse; and
3. Climate change in the Arctic has worldwide consequences.
I will read two conclusions of the ACIA. As I do so please remember that Inuit are an ancient people with a hunting culture based on the sea and sea ice.
Marine species dependent on sea ice, including polar bears, ice-living seals, walrus, and some marine birds, are very likely to decline, with some species facing extinction.
And
For Inuit, warming is likely to disrupt or even destroy their hunting and food sharing culture as reduced sea ice causes the animals on which they depend to decline, become less accessible, and possibly become extinct.
Inuit are adaptable and resourceful. But the ACIA foresees a timewell within the lifetime of my eight-year old grandsonwhen environmental change will be so great that Inuit will no longer be able to maintain their hunting culture. Global warming has become the ultimate threat to Inuit culture and to our survival as an Indigenous people.
Deep and co-ordinated reductions in emissions of GHGs by the developed and developing worlds is required to forestall the future projected in the ACIA. Targets and timetables are needed. There is no getting around this.
Two weeks ago The Globe and Mail quoted Ottawas leaked instructions to its climate change negotiators meeting in Bonn. I imagine many of you read the stories and, perhaps, my opinion editorial in response.
Canada has, apparently, given up on its Kyoto target, will not buy carbon credits, and opposes more stringent greenhouse reduction targets or timetables in the future. Yet the CD Howe Institute has said that Canada could meet 80 percent of its Kyoto target by purchasing carbon credits. Canada is walking away from Kyoto when it knows that its GHG emissions reduction target is achievable. Canada is making a conscious decision to flout international law.
The Government of Canada has promised a made in Canada climate change plan. This is fine, if it enables us to achieve our Kyoto obligations and puts us on the path for deep reductions in GHG emissions in the future to be co-ordinated with other countries through the climate change convention. A made in Canada plan should engage not disengage Canada from the world.
Earlier I quoted the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. How would you respond if an international assessment concluded that your age-old culture and economy was doomed? How would you respond if the Government of the United States and now, apparently, the Government of Canada, refused to be part of global action to address this global challenge?
At global climate change negotiations people rush from meeting to meeting arguing all sorts of narrow technical points. The bigger picture, the cultural picture, the human picture, is being lost. Climate change is about families, parents, children, and the lives we lead in our communities. We have to regain this human perspective if we are to slow and eventually stop human-induced climate change.
Inuit understand these connections because we remain a hunting people of the land, ice, and snow. Hunting is not just about killing animals. The process of the hunt and eating of our country food personifies what it means to be Inuit. It is on the land that values and age-old knowledge are passed down from generation to generation.
The process of the hunt teaches young Inuit to be patient, courageous, bold under pressure, reflective, how not to be impulsive, to withstand stress, to have sound judgement and ultimately wisdom in order to carry out a plan to achieve a goal. Let me repeatour hunting culture is tied to the land. This is why, for us, climate change is an issue of our right and ability to exist as an Indigenous people.
Following more than two years of preparation we submitted last December a climate change complaint a 175 page petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. As well as myself, the petition is filed on behalf of 62 Inuit from northern Canada and northern Alaska on behalf of all Inuit in Canada and Alaska.
Our petition asks the commission to come to the Arctic to see what climate change is doing to our environment and to us. We seek a declaration that destruction of the Arctic environment and the culture and economy of Inuit as a result of virtually unrestricted emission of greenhouse gases by the United Statesthe source of approximately 25 percent of the worlds greenhouse gas emissionsis violating our human rights defined in the 1948 American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man.
We did not target Canada. Canadas 2005 climate change plan was weak and late, but it was a start. It was designed to achieve our Kyoto commitment and to engage the developed and developing worlds on an issue that can only be addressed globally. Now where do we stand? Should we include Canada in our human rights action?
Our petition does not seek damages or compensation. We are encouraging the Government of the United States to join the community of nations in a global campaign to combat climate change.
This petition is not aggressive or confrontational.
It aims to change hearts, minds and the climate change policy of the Government of the United States. It is our means to turn public opinion into public policy.
The petition is by Inuit, and the commission has jurisdiction only in the Americas. I believe firmly, however, that what we are doing is for all Indigenous Peoples and for the whole world. We are reaching out.
In a very real sense our petition is a gift from Inuit hunters and elders to the world. It is an act of generosity from an ancient culture deeply tied to the natural environment and still in tune with its wisdom, to an urban, industrial, and modern culture that has largely lost its sense of place and position in the natural world.
I invite you all to look at our petition on the ICC web site and to support us.
Let me finish by thanking you all for your attention. I am very impressed by many others who have received honors this evening. So many doing such fine work on these important issues and so many young people from Quebec which is also where I am originally from as well. Je viens du Quebec aussi. Once again, I acknowledge and thank you all for this Canadian Environment Award Citation of Lifetime Achievement.
Thank You.
