The Arctic and the Global Environment: Making a Difference on Climate Change
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Conference
Solutions for Communities Climate Summit
Hosted by Global Green USA
Beverly Hills, California
April 1, 2006
Good morning to you all. My name is Sheila Watt-Cloutier. I am the elected Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference which represents the interests internationally of the 155,000 Inuit resident in Canada, the United States, Greenland, and Chukotka in the Federation of Russia. I live in Iqaluit, capital of Canadas Nunavut Territory, but was born and raised in Nunaviknorthern Quebec.
Let me start by saying that I am very honoured to be recognized by Global Green. And I am pleased to be able to share some of my world and my work with you today.
First, it is important to provide you with some context of who I am and where I come from. I am a mother of two and a grandmother of one. I was born out on the land in what some describe as the harshest environment on the planet. While it may seem harsh to some, to me, to Inuit, it is the land that embraces us and has allowed us to not only survive but to thrive.
We have, in my lifetime alone, gone through some incredible changes. For the first ten years of my life, I traveled by dogteam the only means of transportation available. Now I have the privilege of flying by jumbo jet to many corners of the world, including the privilege of being here in Los Angeles.
When I talk, perhaps the most important message I try to leave with people is how we are all connected and how we must repair the disconnects that plague our world today. The Arctic may be far away from Los Angeles, yet the Inuk hunter who falls through the thinning sea ice is connected to the mudslides and wildfires of California which in turn is connected to the policies taken by governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
We are all connected on this planet of ours. And the Arctic and Inuit play an important role that you should all be aware of.
Inuit are still very much a part of the Arctic ecosystem. We are a hunting People who depend on the sustenance that our land and waters provide. Hunting is more then killing an animal for subsistence although our country food still makes up a large part of our diet.
It is out on the land that the Inuit culture finds its true expression and where our Elders pass on the knowledge of generations to our young people. By being on the land and hunting, our young people learn all the skills they need to survive in the modern world: patience, endurance, persistence, strategy, courage and, ultimately, wisdom.
How is this connected to you? There are many connections. Let me point out a few.
The world has every advantage to ensuring that Inuit remain on the land. For when Inuit are out hunting, they notice the minutest of changes to the environment. Climate change is a case in point. Our hunters and Elders have been reporting climate related changes to the Arctic environment for over twenty years now.
In large part because of the persistence of these reports, in October 2000, the Ministers of foreign affairs of the eight-nation Arctic Council met in Barrow, Alaska and 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, it shocked many people, and gained global attention. Newspapers in Africa, Southeast Asia, North America and Western Europe all featured photos of melting glaciers, disappearing summer sea ice and stressed polar bears.
The ACIA confirms what our Elders and hunters were seeing that climate change is happening in the Arctic now.
The ACIA goes further, however, and makes careful scientific projections of climate change into the next 100 years. The ACIA concludes that climate change is quickly going to get worse and that climate change in the Arctic is has global significance. Again the issue of connectivity.
That the impacts of climate change on the Arctic has repercussion for the rest of the planet should not be of any surprise. After all, three years ago the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) passed a resolution urging greater global attention to the Arctic as it is a barometer for the global health of the planet. But what does surprise, is the extent of the repercussions of the warming Arctic.
Out of the many connected impacts, two are particularly worth noting. Both come from the melting of our Arctic ice caps. The Greenland Ice Cap, which is melting at an unprecedented rate, holds enough water to add 7 metres (over 21 feet) to global sea-level rise. As the water is released it is sinking small islands countries and low-lying states such as Bangladesh and, closer to home, parts of Florida and Louisiana.
All that freshwater also has a dangerous impact on ocean currents that regulate the planets temperature. As the ocean circulation is slowed down by adding freshwater from the Greenland Ice Cap, it is no longer able to cool down the waters of the Southern hemisphere. As the temperature of the waters in the Southern hemisphere rise, the intensity of hurricanes and cyclones will grow. I need not remind you how vulnerable even a rich and resourceful country such as the United States is to hurricanes.
The Inuk hunter is the sentinel not only for the Arctic environment but for people who have never even thought about the Arctic last year National Geographic reported that over 200 million people live within three feet of the current sea-level.
The question is: how much longer will Inuit be able to be the planets sentinels?
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.
Scientists are cautious peoplerightly so. But they are not pulling punches in the ACIA. This is because they are confident in their findings and projections.
And I must tell you that the scientific reports that have followed the ACIA, are telling us that the ACIA projections were conservative and the changes to the Arctic environment are happening even faster then projected only a few years ago.
Inuit are adaptable and resourceful. We have to be to thrive in the Arctic. But the ACIA foresees a timewithin the lifetime of my eight year old grandsonwhen environmental change will be so great that Inuit will no longer be able to maintain our hunting culture.
Let me tell you that the changes are getting harder and harder to ignore. Last February in Iqaluit, it was 47 degrees Fahrenheit when it should have -22 Fahrenheit. It was raining when it should have been snowing. While we understand that weather is inherently variable, this is beyond our experience.
What is happening affects virtually every facet of Inuit lifewe are a people of the land, ice, snow, and animals. Our hunting culture thrives on the cold. We need it to be cold to maintain our culture and way of life. Climate change has become the ultimate threat to Inuit culture.
Already we are having considerable difficulty adapting to environmental changes as a result of climate change. Hunters have fallen through the thinning sea ice, traveling in places traditionally safe.
Let me ask you this: How would you respond if an international assessment prepared by more than 300 scientists from 15 countries concluded that your age-old culture and economy was doomed, and that you were to become a footnote to globalization? What can Inuit do to help governments take the required mitigation and adaptation decisions? How can we in the Arctic help states to develop the global perspective we all need?
We understand from climate change science that our window of opportunity is only 10-15 years. Co-ordinated action by all states from the developed and developing worlds is required to forestall the future projected in the ACIA. An Inuk hunter falling through the ice is connected to the economic policies of the United States. The United States must quickly become the international leader in greenhouse gas reductions.
Climate change is not about scoring political points. It is about families, parents, children, and the lives we lead in our communities and in the broader environment. We have to reconnect our leaders with this perspective if climate change is to be stopped.
That is why, following more than two years of preparation we have submitted a complaint a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights based in Washington DC.
As well as myself, the petition is filed on behalf of 62 named 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 find out what climate change is doing to our environment and to us. We seek a declaration from the commission that the United Statesthe source of approximately 25 percent of the worlds greenhouse gas emissionsis violating our human rights detailed in the 1948 Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man.
Let me state very clearly that this petition is not about money. We are not seeking damages or compensation. What we want is the United States to stop violating our rights.
What are our rights specified in the 1948 declaration that are being violated? The petition specifies:
1. the right to life and physical security;
2. the right to personal property;
3. the right to health;
4. the right to practice our culture;
5. the right to use land traditionally used and occupied; and
6. The right to the means of subsistence.
What is the relief we seek from the commission? What are we asking for in addition to the declaration that the United States is violating our human rights? We have asked the commission to recommend that the United States:
1. Adopt mandatory measures to limit its emissions of greenhouse gases in co-operation with the community of nations;
2. Take into account the impact of US greenhouse gas emissions on the Arctic and Inuit before approving all major government actions;
3. In consultation with Inuit, develop a plan to protect Inuit culture and the Arctic environment and mitigate any harm caused by US greenhouse gas emissions; and
4. In co-operation with Inuit, develop a plan to help Inuit adapt to unavoidable climate change impacts.
These are reasonable and responsible suggestions. They are the sort of things governments of any and every political stripe should be doing anyway to protect and help their citizens, and to promote sustainable development.
The purpose of the petition is to educate and encourage the Government of the United States to join the community of nations in a global campaign to combat climate change. Thats what I mean about the Arctic bridging the world, Inuit re-connecting the world.
This petition is not aggressive or confrontational. However, it is a powerful and assertive legal defense of our human rights and, as I said earlier, we are not seeking damages or money for compensation.
We have petitioned a commission, set up by governments in the Americas to promote and protect human rights which we all share. It is not even our intent to embarrass.
Our petition is a means of inviting the United States to talk with us and to put this global issue in a human rights contextwhere it belongs. Our intent is to encourage and to inform. In democracies, public opinion usually becomes public policy. It can take some time, but public opinion is moving our way.
Our petition 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 the 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.
Let us work together to protect the Arctic so that we may save the planet.
Thank You.
