Climate Change

As Michael Meacher, UK Minister of the Environment put it recently in the London Independent; what happens in the globe happens first in the Arctic.

The effects of climate change in the Arctic are no longer theoretical, changes are happening today. ICC has been working with ITK to develop a comprehensive national climate change program within Canada and ensuring this work reflects the international and circumpolar activities underway within the Arctic Council and other fora.

For many years ICC has been noted for its work on human rights and environmental protection. We have always viewed the two as fundamentally linkedthe careful management and protection of the Arctic environment is a requirement for the enjoyment of our human rights, particularly as they relate to our subsistence economy. Inuit in all regions of the circumpolar world are reporting changes to the natural environment as a result of climate change (global warming), which may be the ultimate, long-term threat to Inuit culture. While many in the South characterize climate change as an environmental and/or economic issue, to us it raises questions of culture and survival. Science tells us that these changes are a result, in large measure, of emission of greenhouse gases by the developed world.

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