Inuit consider global warming a human rights issue
WebPosted Dec 11 2003 06:09 PM CST
CBC News
IQALUIT -
Inuit say their human rights are being violated
by countries refusing to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol.
 |
'Tthe least the United States and Russia and other countries can do is sign on to this very minimal instrument' – Sheila Watt-Cloutier |
The protocol commits countries to reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to stem man-made
climate change.
But countries like Russia and the United States have refused to sign the
document at an international conference on the Protocols in Milan, Italy.
Organisers of the conference in Milan had hoped to get the final ratification
needed to put the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions into
effect.
But in the last few days, Russia - whose support is vital after the US
pulled
out of the accord - has said it is having second thoughts about going ahead
with the treaty's commitments.
That kind of foot-dragging, international Inuit organization leaders
say, is threatening thier rights.
The chair of Inuit Circumpolar Conference
International, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, says polar bears and other animals are
threatened, and so is the Inuit way of life.
"If there's going to be any effective change in
what's happening to our Arctic climate, we are going to
have to go beyond Kyoto, she said from Milan. "Kyoto is merely a first step
and the least the United States and Russia and other
countries can do is sign on to this very minimal instrument."
While temperatures in Iqaluit this week have dipped to -30, change is still
evident. The sea ice in Frobisher Bay is coming in
later and melting sooner, and it's thinner in some
areas.
Hunters say they're finding more animals that look weak or hungry, from
disruptions in the normal weather patters.
Watt-Cloutier says her organisation is hoping to
petition the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights "to make an
assessment and declare that indeed
human induced activities and greenhouse gas emissions
are indeed violating the human rights of the Inuit of
the world."
Watt-Cloutier says time is running out for the
Arctic. She plans more pressure on the industrialized nations
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – to save the Inuit way of life.
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