http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1211-07.htm
Published on Thursday,
December 11, 2003 by Reuters
Inuit Hunters: Arctic Climate Change Is
Human Rights Abuse
by Alister Doyle
MILAN, Italy - Inuit hunters said Wednesday that a thawing of
Arctic ice threatened their human rights in a novel bid to raise
pressure on the United States to do more to fight global warming.
"The human rights
of Inuit are under threat as a result of
human-induced climate change," Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair
of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) (http://www.inuit.org/),
told a news conference during a 180-nation U.N. meeting on
climate change in Milan.
The ICC represents
about 155,000 Inuit in Alaska, Canada,
Greenland and Russia and says that rising temperatures are
undermining traditional lifestyles based around hunts of
animals like seals, whales, walruses and polar bears.
In recent years, some
hunters have drowned by falling
through thinning ice, while thawing permafrost is
destabilizing buildings and triggering mudslides.
U.N. studies say the Arctic Ocean may be largely
ice-free in summer by 2100.
"These are issues
of life and death," Watt-Cloutier
said. "We go out to hunt on the sea ice to put food
on the table. You go to the supermarket."
She said the group
was exploring legal ways to link
human rights and climate change to put pressure on
the United States and other nations to do more to
cut emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
She said the Inuit
were likely to complain about global
warming to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights (http://www.cidh.oas.org/DefaultE.htm),
a part of the Organization of American States.
The Commission's rulings
are non-binding but "powerful
governments do not like to be branded as human rights
violators," she said. "We will probably decide exactly
what to do around April next year."
U.N. climate models
say global warming, blamed mainly
on carbon dioxide from cars and power plants, is felt
first in polar regions. Heat rebounds off white ice
but when the ice thaws, the darker water and land below
soak up far more heat.
"The Arctic is
the barometer of global environmental
health," Watt-Cloutier said. Climate change was threatening
many Arctic animals while bringing new species like barn
owls and ducks, as well as swarms of flies in summer.
She urged nations to
sign up for the U.N. Kyoto protocol
meant to curb global warming. Washington pulled out in 2001,
saying Kyoto unfairly excluded developing nations and was
too costly to implement. Russia has yet to decide whether
to ratify.
Paul Crowley, a lawyer
for the Inuit, said they were
unlikely to try to sue the United States for global
warming because it was probably too expensive. Suing
is an idea suggested by some low-lying Pacific Island
states that could be washed away by rising sea levels.
©2003 Copyright
Reuters Ltd
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