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FROM: INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY NEWSPAPER

_http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412173_
(http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412173)

Inuit, as 'miners' canary,' lead fight for the world

(javascript:PrintWindow();) Posted: December 30, 2005 by: _Editors Report_
(http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=471) / Indian Country Today

The Inuit are the miners' canary of the global warming debacle and they
know it. Judging by what they are experiencing in their northern world, what
is coming to the rest of us in other latitudes will be hugely life-altering
for all and catastrophic for many. Not surprisingly, once again the year that
has ended, 2005, was the warmest year in more than 100 years. This has huge
and dire consequences for the world. The Inuit are fighting back with vigor.
They want the world, and particularly the United States, to pay attention to
this horrific global reality.

In December, an officer of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference petitioned the
Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to oppose the
climate change ''caused by the United States of America'' that is destroying
their ecosystem and way of life.

The commission was created by the Organization of American States in 1959
and is well-respected for its record of human rights protection.

The Inuit petition, presented and championed by ICC Chairman Sheila
Watt-Cloutier, points directly at human rights violated by ''global warming caused by
greenhouse gas emissions from the United States of America.'' Watt-Cloutier,
who grew up driving dogsleds and helping her family in hunting and fishing
activities, pointed out: ''Climate change is amplified in the Arctic, which is
a sort of regional 'barometer' of climate change impacts.'' She represents
internationally the 155,000 Inuit who live in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and
Chukotka in the far east of the Russian Federation.

The Inuit of the circumpolar region are increasingly organized. Not long
ago, Inuit from Chukotka were not allowed out of the Soviet Union to attend ICC
meetings; thus, for two decades, two chairs sat empty at ICC meetings. As
the ideological confrontation in the Arctic collapsed along with the Soviet
Union, cooperation has led to visa-free Inuit travel between Provideniya in
Chukotka and Nome in Alaska.

Watt-Cloutier's 163-page ICC petition relies upon the traditional knowledge
of 63 named Inuit hunters and elders from northern Canada and Alaska as well
as scientific research under the peer review process. The petition makes use
of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a major study that was chaired by
Bob Corell of Harvard University and released in 2004. The ACIA pointed out
''climate change is happening now, it is getting worse, it is causing
environmental change, and northerners are trying to adapt to it already.'' (The ACIA
is available at www.acia.uaf.edu.)

More than 300 scientists from 15 countries and six indigenous peoples'
organizations worked on the 2004 ACIA report, which also concludes that the very
vulnerable Arctic is ''experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate
change on earth.''

Not wanting to ''become a footnote to globalization,'' Watt-Cloutier
declared that, ''climate change is destroying our environment and eroding our
culture.''

In the ACIA report, Inuit hunters and elders provide the following
observations:

* Melting permafrost causing beach slumping and increased coastal erosion;

* Longer sea ice-free seasons;

* New species of birds and fish - barn owls, robins, pin-tailed ducks and
salmon - arriving in the region;

* Invasion of mosquitoes and blackflies;

* Unpredictable sea ice conditions; and

* Melting glaciers creating torrents in place of streams.

Among the key conclusions of the ACIA: ''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.''

Without these animals, goes the second conclusion, Inuit hunting and
attendant cultural lifeways, which are already endangered, will be destroyed.
Watt-Cloutier makes a strong case for the Inuit hunting culture as a human right of
her people which, she asserts, is often misunderstood. ''Some people in
far-away countries feel that hunting is sure to disappear. They are wrong and it
is the job of ICC to defend and promote the culture and economy of Inuit ...
The wisdom of the land and process of the hunt teaches young Inuit to be
patient, courageous, tenacious, bold under pressure, reflective, to withstand
stress, to focus and carry out a plan to achieve a goal.''

The United States is named directly because is the ''largest emitter of
greenhouse gases and it refuses to join the international effort to reduce
emissions,'' the petition states. It requests that the commission declare the
United States in violation of rights affirmed in various international covenants,
including the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.

The Inuit petition asks the commission to request the United States adopt
mandatory limits to greenhouse gas emissions. It requests U.S. cooperation
''with the community of nations'' to ameliorate climate change impacts. It would
oblige the United States to ''work with Inuit to develop a plan to help
Inuit adapt to unavoidable impacts of climate change, and to take into account
the impact of its emissions on the Arctic and Inuit before approving all major
government actions.''

We agree with S. James Anaya, law professor at University of Arizona, who
sees the Inuit petition as ''an opportunity for the Commission to make a
significant contribution to the further evolution of international human rights
law.'' We honor and recommend the ICC for using every means at its possession to
struggle for their peoples' right to be who they are in the world. They are
courageous to stand up for themselves, and for us.

Watt-Cloutier, who recently won an international ''Sophie Prize'' for her
work on sustainable development, asserts that the ICC petition ''is not about
money, it is about encouraging the United States to join the world community
to agree to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions needed to protect the Arctic
environment and Inuit culture and, ultimately, the world.''

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