[Vision2020] Nobel Nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier: Inuit Petition To Lower Global Warming Emissions

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/index.php?ID=318&Lang=En

http://www.inuitcircumpolar.com

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/04/27/north-award.html
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*The Climate Change Petition by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights*

*Presentation by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Conference
Eleventh Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change
Montreal, December 7, 2005*

Good afternoon. 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.

Today, first I am going to speak about the place of the Arctic in the global
debate to address climate change. As well I will talk about the human rights
of Inuit in light of the changes to the Arctic environment outlined by Bob
Corell. After James Anaya has spoken, and before we go to questions, I will
speak again.

Last week Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's national Inuit organization,
held a side event at which elders and hunters spoke eloquently of what
climate change is doing to the Arctic and to our culture and way of life.
Arctic Day yesterday was a remarkable day. For more than 20 years Inuit
hunters and elders have reported changes to the natural environment. Science
and traditional knowledge are saying the same thing.

The range of these changes is well-known: melting permafrost, thinning and
ablation of sea ice, receding glaciers, "invasion" of species of animals not
previously seen in the Arctic, increased coastal erosion, longer and warmer
summers and shorter winters. As Bob has said, the magnitude of these changes
varies from place to place, but the trend is consistent across the Arctic.

What is happening affects virtually every facet of Inuit life—we 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.

Bob spoke about the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). The ACIA
considered the impacts of climate change on the health and culture of
people, including Inuit. It is helping to put a human face on an issue that
is usually characterized as an environmental and economic matter.

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.

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?


Inuit are adaptable and resourceful. We have to be to survive in the Arctic.
But the ACIA foresees a time—within the lifetime of my eight year old
grandson—when environmental change will be so great that Inuit will no
longer be able to maintain their hunting culture. Already Inuit are
struggling to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Please think of these two ACIA findings in the context of the objective of
the climate change convention, which is:

Stabilization of 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.

The Arctic ecosystem does not have time to adapt to the projected future. I
am deeply concerned that Inuit—an essential component of the Arctic
ecosystem—will have insufficient time to adapt.

The Arctic has gained broad recognition as the globe's "barometer" of
climate change. I live in Iqaluit on Baffin Island. My back yard is the
world's "sentinel" ecosystem for climate change, the guard so to speak.

An Inuk out on the land hunting for a seal with which to feed his family
observes even minute changes to the environment. In a very real sense he is
the sentinel—the first line of defense against climate change. That Inuk
hunter illustrates something else—climate change is a human and family
issue.

The ACIA projects the disappearance of some species of ice-living seals.
Seals are our food. The climate change convention aims to "ensure that food
production is not threatened." Well, it is. The objective of the climate
change convention is being breached in the Arctic.

There are three basic messages from the Arctic.

1. "dangerous" climate change is already here;
2.  climate change in the Arctic is quickly going to get worse; and
3. climate change in the Arctic is important globally.

The convention mentions by name certain regions within the developing world
that are vulnerable to climate change. It does not mention the Arctic. In
view of what we now know, this is a glaring omission.

The Arctic is the homeland of many Indigenous peoples. I see in the audience
today representatives of Sami, Athabascans, Gwich'in, Russian Indigenous
peoples and many others. According to the United Nations, Inuit live in the
developed world, but this is not the case. We have much in common with
developing states. We have difficult social and health conditions, our
environment is being assaulted by climate change and contaminants from afar,
and we have enormous infrastructure challenges.

The Arctic does not "fit" within the categories—developing and developed
worlds and economies in transition—used in the climate change convention.
Instead, the Arctic bridges them.

This bridging role will increase as the circumpolar Arctic becomes an
important geopolitical region. Oil, gas, and minerals in the Arctic are
attracting more and more attention from decision-makers in the South. I am
sure this trend has only just begun.

The Arctic should be integrated into global debate on climate change by
amending the convention or some other means. Arctic states have been working
here in Montreal on a political statement that moves us in this direction.

The Arctic can help us all look beyond narrowly defined national interests
to create a global perspective. This is what's needed if we are to combat
climate change. The "Voice from the North" can help determine the global
level of greenhouse gas reductions required to achieve the goal of the
convention.

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.
We are all in this together.

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?

I have attended three COPs. People rush from meeting to meeting arguing
about all sorts of narrow technical points. The bigger picture, the cultural
picture, the human picture is being lost. Climate change is not about
bureaucrats scurrying around. It is about families, parents, children, and
the lives we lead in our communities in the broader environment. We have to
regain this perspective if climate change is to be stopped.

Inuit understand these connections because we remain a people of the land,
ice, and snow. This is why, for us, climate change is an issue of our right
to exist as an Indigenous people. How can we stand up for ourselves and help
others do the same?

Following more than two years of preparation we have submitted today a
petition—this 167-page petition—to the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights based in Washington DC. I want to thank Don Goldberg of the Centre
for International Environmental Law, Martin Wagner of EarthJustice, James
Anaya of the University of Arizona, Sasha Earnheart-Gold and Rich Powell two
American students from Dartmouth and Harvard who gathered the testimonies
from our hunter/elders and women for the petition as well as my team at ICC
Paul Crowley who led the legal team from Iqaluit and Terry Fenge my advisor
of ten years, for their remarkable work in developing the petition. As well,
I want to acknowledge and thank the, literally, hundreds of Inuit who have
expressed support for what we are doing.

The full text of the petition is posted on ICC's web site at
www.inuitcircumpolar.com 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.  We have citizens of the United States as well
as Canada petitioning the commission.

Our petition asks the commission to come to the Arctic to find out what
climate change is doing to the environment and to Inuit. We seek a
declaration from the commission that the United States—the world's source of
more than 25 percent of greenhouse gases —is violating our human rights as
outlined in the 1948 American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man.
As we have seen in the last few days the United States continues to refuse
to work with the community of nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

James Anaya will go into detail about the meaning and interpretation of the
declaration and how it protects our rights as a people, and how our petition
fits within evolving international human rights law.

Let me say clearly that this is not about money. We are not seeking damages.
What we want is the United States to stop violating our rights. To do that
the United States needs to lead the international effort for absolute
reductions in emission of greenhouse gases. Without absolute reductions
Inuit hunting and food sharing culture will not survive.

What are our rights 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.

A declaration from the commission may not enforceable, but it has great
moral value. We intend the petition to educate and encourage the United
States to join the community of nations in a global effort to combat climate
change.

We need, and the world needs, deep reductions in emissions of greenhouse
gases. Without these reductions the Arctic is destined to change enormously
and the ability of Inuit to adapt to environmental change will be
overwhelmed.
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 want 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 to mitigate any harm caused by US greenhouse gas
emissions; and
4. In co-ordination with Inuit, develop a plan to help Inuit adapt to
unavoidable climate change.

I said earlier that we have to develop a global perspective on climate
change. While the petition singles out the United States, we do not do this
in a spirit of confrontation.  I think you will agree that the relief we
seek is reasonable.

I suggested that the Arctic is a bridge between regions of the world. Inuit
have the same philosophy. We want to bring people together . Protecting
human rights is ground occupied by both reasonable governments and civil
society, including Inuit and other Indigenous peoples.

This petition is our means of inviting the United States to talk with us and
to put this global issue into a broader human and human rights context. Our
intent is to encourage  and to inform . As I said at the beginning of my
remarks, I will speak about the spirit rather than the politics of what we
are doing after James Anaya has spoken.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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