Responding to Global Climate Change: The Perspective of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference on The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Terry Fenge, and Paul Crowley
The world can tell us everything we want to know. The only problem for the world is that it doesnt have a voice. But the worlds indicators are there. They are always talking to us.
Quitsak Tarkiasuk
Introduction
The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) prepared by the eight-nation Arctic Council was formally presented to council ministers at their biennial meeting in
Background
In February 2003, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) adopted resolution 22/11, Sustainable Development of the Arctic. Overly general in language, as such resolutions tend to be, it nevertheless focused attention on a region of the world that has been historically low among UNEPs priorities. The resolution recognized the increasing global importance of the
This resolution is indicative of an important fact: scientists and policy-makers increasingly appreciate that the impacts of human-induced climate change globally can be seen and experienced first in the
UNEPs welcome interest in the
Climate change in polar regions is expected to be among the largest and most rapid of any regions on the Earth, and will cause major physical, ecological, sociological, and economic impacts especially in the
The ACIA supports and elaborates upon this conclusion.
That observable and measurable changes to the
*What are the long-term implications of projected climate change to health, economy, and culture?
*How can Arctic residents adapt to the impacts of projected climate change?
*What are the cultural and social limits to adaptation?
*What policies and programmes are needed to increase resilience and adaptability to climate change?
*What needs to be done globally to slow and reverse human-induced climate change?
*What role may Arctic Indigenous peoples play in persuading national governments around the world to address climate change as a matter of urgency?
Observations by Inuit
Some commentators and a few scientists remain unconvinced that climate change is taking place and that global emissions of greenhouse gases are at least a contributory cause. Observations by Inuit should help to convince the skeptics that climate change is a reality.
Inuit hunters are keen observers of the natural environment. They have to be; they depend upon it for food. University and government scientists as well as Inuit organizations have documented the extent and intensity of land and ocean use by Inuit and their detailed knowledge of animal behaviour and biology, particularly of harvested species, and of ecological relationships.
Traditional, experiential-based knowledge (TK) of Inuit is now broadly accepted as legitimate, accurate, and useful, although until recently it was dismissed by some scientists as anecdotal and unreliable. Inuit have repeatedly offered to share what they know of their environment in the expectation that their observations will assist governments to manage natural resources. The natural resource management literature is now rich with examples and case studies of TK, and many practitioners stress the need to combine traditional knowledge and science, to the benefit of both. Some recent examples of TK illustrate well the utility of Inuit observations.
In 1999 the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Inuvialuit community of
Community residents reported all manner of climate change-related environmental alterations, beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. While the media and some non-government organizations have popularized the image of fewer and thinner polar bears as emblematic of climate change in the Arctic, Inuvialuit in Sachs Harbour spoke of commonplace and cumulative changes that threaten their cultural future: melting permafrost resulting in beach slumping; increased snowfalls; longer sea ice-free seasons; new species of birds, ducks, and fish (barn owls, mallard and pin-tailed ducks, and salmon) invading the community; a decline in the lemming population, the basic food for Arctic fox and a valuable harvested species; and generally a warming trend (Jolly et al. 2002).
That kerosene and fuel oil no longer resemble milk and jelly in mid-winter is the compelling indicator of climate change offered by long-time resident Andy Carpenter. Environmental indicators used for generations to predict weather and aid hunting and travel over sea ice no longer work reliably. With temperature and precipitation increasingly unpredictable and the look and feel of the land becoming unfamiliar, it is increasingly difficult for Inuvialuit to read the land and follow the seasons.
Nunvut Tunngavik Incorporated Climate Change Workshop
Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI), the Inuit organization that implements the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, sponsored a two-day workshop in
Voices from the Bay
A particularly ambitious, rigorously conducted, award-winning, and often-quoted TK study of environmental change in the
Table 1 summarizes environmental observations recorded in the study. Particularly interesting observations include wholesale changes in location, number, and duration of polynyasopen water areas in winterin eastern
Established in 1993, the Alaska Native Science Commission has conducted numerous TK projects to explain the environmental observations of
The plight of Shishmaref, rapidly being washed into the
Heather Miller of
The seasons are getting very fast and are all mixed up. The last few years my grandmother was living she said that there was not enough time to put things away like there used to be. When we are done with the willow leaves then comes the sourdocks. These seasons are in too much of a hurry now (Alaska Native Science Commission).
Conclusions from the Case Studies
Each case study illustrates an important fact: much of the impact of climate change on Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous peoples will be channelled through ecological changes to which they will have to adapt (Fenge 2001). Already Inuit are altering their hunting patterns to accommodate changes to the ice regime and distribution of harvested species, both marine and terrestrial. We can expect significant changes in Inuit land and resource use from that documented in
The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
Faced with growing concern about the implications of global climate change, the Arctic Council initiated, in October 2000, at its meeting in Barrow, Alaska, an ambitious and comprehensive climate change assessment (Arctic Council, 2000). The ambit of this assessment was outlined in the political declaration signed by ministers of foreign affairs:
3. Endorse and adopt the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), a joint project of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) and the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group, in cooperation with the International Arctic Science Committee, and
acknowledge the establishment of the ACIA Steering Committee to coordinate the ACIA, and express our gratitude to the
request the ACIA to evaluate and synthesize knowledge on climate variability and change and increased ultraviolet radiation, and support policy-making processes and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;
further request that the assessment address environmental, human health, social, cultural and economic impacts and consequences, including policy recommendations; and
approve the goals and objectives contained in the ACIA Implementation Plan and request that the AMAP and CAFF Working Groups, in consultation with the Sustainable Development Working Group, promote the availability of the necessary social and economic expertise to complete the assessment.
Developed during 1999 and 2000, the ACIA Implementation Plan promised three reports: a science assessment, a summary or overview volume, and a policy report. The applied nature of the exercise was clear from the outset. Ministers approved an assessment that would address cultural impactsreflecting the existence of Indigenous peoples in the circumpolar
Enjoying a secretariat based at the
In light of global publicity and commentary, much of it uncomplimentary, on the position of the Government of the United States toward climate change and its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, it is only fair to applaud the effective participation of American academics and researchers in the ACIA and to acknowledge the significant financial contribution by the United States to this circumpolar exercise.
Key Findings of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
Table 2 summarizes the key findings of the ACIA. From an Inuit perspective the key to understanding this comprehensive and detailed assessment lies in projections of the impact of climate change on the sea-ice environment.
Numerous researchers have documented the depletion of summer sea ice in the
Although unable to predict accurately when summer sea-ice depletion will permit regular shipping transits through the
Marine species dependent on sea ice, including polar bears, ice-living seals, walrus, and some marine birds, are very likely to decline, with some facing extinction (emphasis added).
While navigating considerable social change in recent decades as the
Polar bear, walrus, and particularly seals are key harvested species and their projected demise will result in major cultural trauma. The ACIA summary volume does not pull punches:
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 (emphasis added).
The Perspective of Arctic Indigenous Peoples
Drawing upon the precedent of the 2002 circumpolar contaminants assessment by the councils Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the six Arctic Indigenous peoples organizations submitted a statement to be included at the beginning of the science assessment and summary volumes. Rejected as being too political, this statement said, in part:
To Arctic Indigenous peoples climate change is a cultural issue. We have survived in a harsh environment for thousands of years by listening to its cadence and adjusting to its rhythms. We are part of the environment and if, as a result of global climate change, the species of animals upon which we depend are greatly reduced in number or location or even disappear, we, as peoples would also become endangered as well.
For some years we have seen and reported environmental and social impacts of global climate change. Climate change is already threatening our ways of life and poses everyday, practical questions, such as when and where to go hunting, and when and where not to travel. Indeed, the findings of the ACIA show that the Arctic climate is changing twice as fast as that of the rest of the world. There is very little time for Indigenous peoples and the resources on which we depend to adjust and adapt.
Our environmental observations are supported in the ACIA. Our traditional knowledgeincorporating historical and contemporary observationscomplements science-based observations. Both are reported in the ACIA, a unique and important feature of this assessment.
In the face of climate change we will defend our cultures and ways of life by actively participating in concerted efforts to reduce human-induced causes of climate change. We encourage the Arctic states singly and collectively through the Arctic Council to help us to do so. It is of central importance that the Arctic states, armed with the ACIA, set an example to the world by reducing significantly their own emissions of greenhouse gases.
Through their statement the six permanent participants urged Arctic states to:
*inject Arctic perspectives, as outlined in the ACIA, into the heart of the ongoing debate on the impacts and effects of global climate change;
*assist Arctic Indigenous peoples to bring their views, perspectives, and recommendations to international institutions mandated to combat the impacts and effects of global climate change;
*adopt and implement, as a matter of urgency, strategies to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and to enhance carbon sinks;
*encourage Arctic Indigenous peoples to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change by equipping them with information and budgets, by acknowledging their authority to make decisions to protect and promote their ways of life, and by working closely with their representative organizations; and
*instruct AMAP, CAFF, and the Sustainable Development Working Group to propose an ACIA follow-up research agenda.
ACIA Policy Recommendations
Pursuant to the Barrow Declaration, a policy-drafting committee including representatives of the eight Arctic states and six permanent participants was charged with drafting a policy report with recommendations for ministers based upon the unfolding ACIA. This committee met in New England, Copenhagen, and London, England, in 2003two years after the assessment process beganand prepared a short but comprehensive paper subsequently referred to as the London draft addressing mitigation; adaptation; research, observations, monitoring, and modelling; and communications and education. Chaired by two of the councils working groups, this committee worked co-operatively, notwithstanding national differences in approach, policy, and priorities.
ICC was pleased with the attitude and accomplishments of the policy-drafting committee and, in particular, with the adoption of a framework that stressed mitigation as well as adaptation. Supported by all permanent participants, ICC suggested inclusion of a recommendation that Arctic states propose an amendment to either the preamble or an operative clause of the UNFCCC to acknowledge the significant impacts of climate change in the Arctic and on the regions Indigenous peoples. The climate change convention singles out various portions of the globe but fails to mention the
At the third meeting of the committee, in Autumn 2003, the delegate of the
Specifically, we are seeking here [in the policy working group] to develop the scientific assessment and its summary in tandem with policy recommendations that logically should flow from them. Moreover, these policy recommendations should be developed only after governments have had an opportunity to consider the Scientific Document and the Synthesis Document on which they are based and draw their conclusions. In effect we are putting the cart alongside the horse with the risk that neither cart nor horse will arrive at the destination.
If adopted, this position would have delayed consideration of policy recommendations to an unspecified date but certainly after presentation of the assessment to ministers. At odds with the political declaration through which ministers approved the assessment work plan, this position seemed to reflect the fact that the ACIA was, at that time, to be presented to national governments in October 2004, during the presidential election campaign in the United States. In response to the
It will surely appear to the Arctic Council that the
The timing of the ministerial meeting was subsequently changed to late November 2004 (Inside EPA, 2003). At their October 2003 meeting, SAOs thanked the drafting group for its work and took upon themselves the responsibility to continue the exercise, although it was becoming unclear just what this meant. The chairman of the SAOs wrote to all states and permanent participants on
we have not put paid to the ACIA policy process, but will continue to work on the basis of the declaration of the Barrow Ministerial Meeting in 2000.SAOs will consider and prepare recommendations to Ministers for joint adoption at the fourth Ministerial meeting in the fall of 2004.it remains the prerogative of the SAOs to decide how the policy-work of the ACIA will be carried forwardThis includes the question of whether to reactivate the PDT [Policy Drafting Team]and...the form to be given to the recommendations to Ministers, including the question of whether they are called recommendations or something else.(Palsson 2004).
ICC was immediately concerned about this statement. Backing away from the principle of policy recommendations was not, ICC concluded, an option consistent with the Barrow Declaration.
In April 2004, at an informal meeting of SAOs and permanent participants in Nuuk, all delegates, including the
The
ICC registered its opposition to this development. A recommendatory report stands alone and so invites a response by ministers. A declaratory report, on the other hand, does not and invites an obvious question: just what are the policy recommendations to which the ministers are being asked to respond? At this stage it seemed that policy considerations would be addressedICC feared that buried might be a more accurate appraisalin the SAOs general Arctic Council activities report to ministers.
In response, ICC wrote to the SAO chair on
It is our view that ministerial instructions in the Barrow and Inari Declarations and the councils rules of procedure require the presentation to ministers of an ACIA policy report that stands alone (Watt-Cloutier 2004a).
In defending the principle of policy recommendations in a stand alone report, ICC wrote to the chair of the SAOs:
1. The original ACIA instructions issued by Arctic Council ministers in 2000 remain in effect;
2. these instructions require presentation to ministers of three ACIA documentsscientific, synthesis, and policy; and
3. the SAOs are required to act in accordance with the decisions and instructions of the council.
The
Responding to a request from U.S. Senator McCain, the ICC chair presented a well-received brief on 15 September to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation:
I ask you to look seriously at the
This presentation prompted the issuance of press guidance by the Department of State assuring all that the US is not seeking to keep the ACIA report under wraps, which in turn helped to persuade Senators McCain, Snowe, and Lautenberg to write to Secretary of State Colin Powell urging him to ensure that the United States operate from within rules defined in the Barrow Declaration.
ICCs presentation and the resulting senators correspondence were widely covered by newspapers and radio in the
