Inuit aim to put a human face on the effects of climate change

[YankeyMCC]

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Watt-Cloutier will argue before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington today that the United States, as the world's largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, is violating her people's rights.

While for many global warming is a distant threat, for the Inuit its impact is a reality now. "It's about real people who live on top of the world," she said this week before leaving for the hearing.
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The Arctic is the region of the globe hardest hit by rising temperatures. In a major report Feb. 2, a UN-sponsored network of scientists said some projections show the Arctic's late-summer sea ice will disappear almost entirely in the second half of this century.
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"There's no heartbeat to any of these global negotiations," Watt-Cloutier said. "We bring that urgency, that immediacy, because we tell the story of the Inuk hunter who falls through the depleting ice, how it's connected to the industries, connected to the disposable world."

Watt-Cloutier, 53, who traveled only by dog sled when she was a child, fears her 9-year-old grandson could be from the last Inuit generation to know how to read the stars, the wind, and the clouds, to hunt the food that keeps them healthy, and the furs and skins that help them survive the elements.

"Within my grandson's lifetime, he will lose what I had," she said. "The wisdom and answers from our hunting culture may leave us, because the ice is melting so fast."
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http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/03/01/inuit_aim_to_put_a_human_face_on_the_effects_of_climate_change/

[maddezmom]

1. Northern Canadians say carbon emissions from US violate their rights

WASHINGTON People who live almost at the top of the world say they're being hurt by greenhouse gases being spewed into the air by their southern neighbors, primarily Americans.

The Inuits (IH'-noo-wit) are bringing their case to Washington today. They'll be getting a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The Inuits are native to northern Canada, Russia, Greenland and Alaska. And they say their way of life is at stake because of damage to the environment from carbon emissions, chiefly from the U-S. Among other things, they're losing hunting grounds their ancestors have relied on for thousands of years.

http://www.wluctv6.com/Global/story.asp?S=6160081&nav=menu134_2