— Sheila Watt-Cloutier Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Conference
(February 12, 2005) For millennia, the Inuit have lived in the
Arctic coastal areas of Alaska, Canada, Russia and Greenland.
Like many indigenous peoples, the Inuit are the product of the
physical environment in which they live. The culture, economy
and identity of the Inuit as an indigenous people depend upon
the ice and snow. Climate change now threatens the Inuit's human
rights to culture, life, personal security, health, housing, and
food. The Arctic is warming much more rapidly than previously
known, at nearly twice the rate as the rest of the globe,
according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), a
four-year scientific study conducted by an international team of
300 scientists under the direction of a high-level
intergovernmental forum including the United States. Increasing
greenhouse gases from human activities are projected to make the
Arctic warmer still, according to this unprecedented report.
These changes will have major global