Arctic Peoples and Biodiversity: The Interface Between Climate Change and Traditional Ecological Kno

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Arctic Peoples and Biodiversity The Interface
Between Climate Change and Traditional Ecological
Knowledge (The Case of the Nunavut) By,
Laura Westra, Ph.D. Professor Emerita
(Philosophy) University of Windsor Ph.D. in Law,
Osgoode Hall Law School York University 4700
Keele St. Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada E-mail
lwestra_at_interlog.com Website www.ecointegrity.net
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The Inuit and Ecological and Biological
Integrity Pack ice to the white man seems like
a barrier, something to fear. But to the Inuit
its their highway. Its their communication
system, their freedom, their independence.
Without it there is no Inuit culture.
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Two Related Areas of Harms to Aboriginal
Peoples-Chemicals, Extractive Operations,
Pesticides and Radioactive Exposures Clear
evidence can be found in general reports on the
far-reaching toxicity of all industrial
chemicals, especially in the medical/epidemiologic
al literature coming from Europe, as that
research is somewhat less likely to be tainted by
political bias, than work by local scholars,
dependent on local funding and institution. The
gravity of the problem is recognized by Amnesty
International, and other International NGOs like
Women in Europe for a Common Future. The
developing human brain is inherently much more
susceptible to injury caused by toxic agents,
than is the brain of an adult. This
susceptibility stems from the fact that during
the nine months of prenatal life, the human brain
must develop from a strip of cells along the
dorsal ectoderm of the fetus, into a complex
organ consisting of billions of precisely
located, highly interconnected and specialized
cells. In theory, such irreversible
neurobehavioural damage is preventable. But only
five major groups of chemicals have been admitted
to be toxic lead, methyl mercury, arsenic and
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and solvents,
yet at least 201 chemicals are known to be
neurotoxic in man. Nor are only developmental
abnormalities the only hazards The combined
evidence suggests that neurodevelopmental
disorders caused by industrial chemicals has
created a silent pandemic in modern society
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Two Related Areas of Harms to Aboriginal
Peoples-Global Warming and Vulnerability In the
Arctic While Western developed nations debate
about the existence of Global Warming and what to
do about it, the Inuit have been plunged right
into the effects of it, with no way out In 2004
scientists with the Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment, a comprehensive study of climate
change in the Arctic, reported that the region as
a whole has undergone the greatest warming on
Earth in recent decades with annual temperature
now averaging 2-3 degrees Celsius higher than in
the 50s. This change affects the regions ice,
as the late Summer Arctic sea ice has been
thinned by 40 percent in some parts, and shrunk
in the area of roughly 8 percent over the past 30
years.
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Vulnerability in the Arctic Research by Ford
et. al.
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More than Climate Change What we are witnessing
in the Arctic is much more than climate change,
it isas the people in Nunavik describe
itclimatic disruption. It is more than just
warmer temperatures it is (a) the total
unpredictability those changes produce (b) the
related elimination of the Inuits knowledge
base and (c) the severe impact on their cultural
life. If the Inuit are traditionally
dependent on their hunting activities, the
ability to predict the weather, in order (a) to
prepare ahead of each trip is much more than the
source of convenience in their travel it could
be, and often is, a matter of life and death.
For instance, if the expectations are for Spring
temperatures, that might be too warm to build
igloos, so that tents might be a better
alternative making this decision ahead of a trip
may well prove fatal if the temperature drops
suddenly in the night and the hunters may then
freeze to death. Similarly, the arrival of
freak blizzards and sudden snowmelts, may prove
equally fatal to hunters unexpectedly falling
through thinner ice. Thus the importance of
traditional knowledge is drastically diminished,
as is the respect due to experienced hunters (b).
Hunters were formerly the keepers of the
collective social memory. Further, as the
difficulties encountered in the changed physical
environment dissuade the present and older
generations from persisting in their traditional
ways, the results have been even worse in the
younger generation English has replaced
Inuktikut as the dominant language among younger
generations, older generations think the young
Inuit are not interested in learning the
traditional ways, and the Euro-American social
norms of youth are far removed from the
traditional upbringing of older generations.
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Self Governance Necessary but not
Sufficient People form governments for their
common defence, security and welfare. The first
thing that public officials owe their
constituents is protection against natural and
man-made hazards. We have noted the grave
problems that beset them loss of cultural
integrity and identity, primarily, based not only
on the loss of an appropriate land base, but also
on the erosion of their traditional knowledge, so
that even on the land, under conditions of
changing climate and altered geographical
characteristics, the Inuit are becoming strangers
in their own lands, without the reassuring
presence of their age-old skills to guide them.
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The Rights of the Inuit Quantitative or
Qualitative Land Rights Whereas Her Majesty the
Queen in right of Canada and the Inuit of the
Nunavut Settlement Area have negotiated an
agreement based on and reflecting the following
objectives to provide for certainty and
clarity of rights to ownership and use the land
and resources and of right for Inuit to
participate in decision-making concerning the
use, management and conservation of lands, water
and resources, including the offshore, to
provide Inuit with wildlife harvesting rights and
rights to participate in decision-making
concerning wildlife harvesting, to provide
Inuit with financial compensation and means of
participating in economic opportunities, to
encourage self-reliance and the cultural and
social well-being of the Inuit
Self-reliance and cultural and social
well-being are nothing but empty ideals, when
the conditions necessary for their actualization
are no longer present. Ownership and use
of lands and resources are also increasingly
empty promises, when the land (including the
sea-ice) is shrinking fast and what remains is
quickly losing its resources, so that wildlife
harvesting rights are becoming more and more
elusive. The conservation of land, water
resources is something that, no matter how good
the governance, and how sensitive it might be to
the Inuits lifestyle is no longer within their
power.
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The Convention on Biological Diversity and the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic The
Interface Article 8 In Situ Conservation Each
contracting Party shall, as far as possible and
as appropriate (a) Establish a system of
protected areas or areas where special measures
need to be taken to conserve biological
diversity (d)
Promote the protection of ecosystems, natural
habitats and the maintenance of viable
populations in natural surroundings.. (i)
Endeavour to provide the conditions for
compatibility between present uses and the
conservation of biological diversity and the
sustainable use of its components (j) Subject
to its national legislation, respect, practices
of indigenous and local communities embodying
traditional lifestyles relevant for the
conservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity..
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The Protection of Ecosystem Function and
Traditional Lifestyles Depend on the Preservation
of Special Areas The points emphasized above are
particularly relevant to the main argument of
this work. Note the first point (a) on the
establishment of protected areas, as well as the
presence of special measures to conserve
diversity, which, as we have argued above, must
include a buffer zone and general restraint of
industrial activities. Whatever the country, the
climate and the specifics of biological
diversity, conservation in situ starts with the
absolute requirement of protected areas in
addition, those areas must be protected from
inappropriate activities even beyond the borders
of the area itself. Essentially, the
conservation of biodiversity starts necessarily
with the protection of ecosystems, hence, not
only biodiversity itself, but its precondition,
the protections of ecological integrity and the
biological integrity of the species living
therein, require also the protection of the
ecosystemic function to which they all
contribute. 6. Notes with concern the specific
vulnerability of indigenous and local
communities, inter alia of the Arctic, small
island states and high altitudes, concerning the
impacts of climate change and accelerated
threats, such as pollution, drought, and
desertification, to traditional knowledge
innovations and practices..
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The Circumpolar Peoples Petition In a frozen
land, where even small changes in the climate can
be significant, the rapid changes being wrought
by global warming are nothing short of
catastrophic. Global warming is forcing the
Inuit to shoulder the burden of the rest of the
worlds development with no corresponding
benefit...........................................
................ Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit IQ
tells the Inuit that the weather is not just
warmer in the Arctic, but the entire familiar
landscape is metamorphosing into an unknown
land. Contrast these passages with the
terse response of the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights (Organization of American
States), which declined to rule on the complaint
of the Arctic Peoples, that global warming
caused by the United States violates their right
to sustain traditional ways, as there was
insufficient evidence of harm.
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Environmental Assaults and Wilful Blindness
The Petition painstakingly takes us through some
familiar territory, problems we have addressed on
these pages, such as the harm to their
traditional hunting and gathering culture to
their economy to their social and cultural
practices and the Inuit traditional knowledge
regarding climate conditions (IQ, or TEK, in
general). The Petition also reviews the now
well-known facts about global warming and the
particular vulnerability of the Arctic, by the
most creditable scientists and researchers
today. Hence, to ignore the melting of polar
ice sheets and glaciers, the rising of sea
levels, a hazard Arctic peoples share with island
and coastal states, the alteration of species
and habitats, and the changed conditions that
amount to a physical and intellectual attack on
their life, individually and collectively, is to
exhibit not only unacceptable ignorance, but also
wilful blindness, that is, a criminal approach to
the reality of the Inuits conditions. In a
recent speech to the American Geographical Union,
Al Gore acknowledges the end of the age of
print, and with it, much of the desire for real
information and the ability to think and weigh
issues, supplanted instead by televisions
emphasis on entertainment. Gore added There
is now willful blindness among both the public
and the politicians.
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A Parallel and a Goal The Framework Convention
on Tobacco Although health has traditionally
been a limited area of international legal
cooperation, there is a growing awareness that
contemporary globalization has led to the
proliferation of cross-border determinants of
health status and is undermining the capacity of
states to protect public health through domestic
action alone. After reviewing the numerous
health issues that have had such a grave impact
on Arctic peoples, and in particular on the Inuit
of Nunavut, it is easy to see the parallels
between their exposures and those of smokers, as
well as the similarity between the great profits
of Big Tobacco on one hand, and those of big oil
and chemicals, on the other.
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A Parallel and a Goal The Framework Convention
on TobaccoContinued... According to the
WHO cigarette smoking and other forms of
tobacco use currently kill 4.9 million people per
year, with the majority of deaths occurring in
industrialized countries.. It is expected that
by 2020 tobacco will kill up to 10 million people
per year with 70 per cent of deaths occurring in
developing states, if the epidemic is left
unchecked. The number of affected peoples
morbidity and death from climate change is also
great and increasing as many as 150,000 deaths
are occurring every year, and 5 million disease
incidents each year, from malaria and diarrhea,
mostly in the poorest nations. Climate
change, as noted, is particularly grave for
Arctic peoples who (a) are absolutely dependent
on their territories normal seasons and
temperatures for survival and (b) have the
highest exposure of any individuals or
collectives, in addition, to several of the worst
chemicals in existence, as their traditional diet
consists primarily of animals high on the food
chain. It seems that, once again, as in the
fight against Nuclear Weapons and against big
tobacco, the WHO ought to take the lead with
another convention against the attacks to the
human person described in this chapter.