Arctic Peoples

By Patricia Cochran and Taito Nakalevu

Three years ago, when a tsunami washed away the lives and livelihoods of people in South-east Asia, the rest of the world acted with commendable compassion. Tents, blankets and food were sent, reconstruction teams poured in, and people around the world sent millions of dollars to help. Now another devastating wave is threatening the lives and livelihoods of people globally - from the fringes of the Arctic to the Caribbean and the scattered islands of the South Pacific. This wave of global warming also brings devastation in its path, but it is moving so slowly that some people fail to recognize its destructive power. Arctic regions and small islands around the world are being hit hardest.
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by Clive Tesar

The United States Government is beginning to show signs that it understands the seriousness of climate change. A new Bill in the United States Senate backs an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. The Bill, sponsored by Senator Boxer, has attracted the support of democratic presidential hopefuls Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama.

A senior Senate staff official told a visiting delegation of Arctic Leaders,

We hope to be in a position to do something very aggressive on global warming when we have a new President. However, we still have a lot of difficult people, including two senators from Alaska who won’t agree.

The Arctic Leaders have been visiting Senators’ offices in Washington DC, for the past three days to persuade the Senators to back urgent action on climate change. The Leaders have stressed that they are not backing any particular Bill, or any particular US political party, but simply want to see the United States take any action that will start to stabilize temperatures in the Arctic.
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by Clive Tesar

Representatives of Permanent Participant organizations made a solid impact at recent climate change negotiations in Montreal, Canada. A space was set aside by the Government of Canada for one day during the negotiations to highlight the concerns of Arctic Peoples. As “Arctic Day” started, the room was packed with people eager to see the traditional drumming and dancing of the Inuvialuit from northern Canada, members of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. The room remained full throughout the day, as people streamed in to see the various cultural performances, including dancers and singers from the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, drummers from the Arctic Athabaskan Council , and even an Inuit fashion show.The cultural events helped to draw people to the messages that the political Leaders had to deliver. The Leaders used speeches, as well as videos, and collections of traditional knowledge to drive across their point that climate change is already affecting the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, and threatens to have even stronger impacts if countries do not take firm and immediate actions to slow the rate of warming in the Arctic.
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