Paul Brown in Milan Thursday December 11, 2003 The Guardian
The Inuit people of Canada and Alaska are launching a human rights case against the Bush administration claiming they face extinction because of global warming.
By repudiating the Kyoto protocol and refusing to cut US carbon dioxide emissions, which make up 25% of the world's total, Washington is violating their human rights, the Inuit claim.
For their campaign they are inviting the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit the Arctic circle to see the devastation being caused by global warming.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the chairwoman of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents all 155,000 of her people inside the Arctic circle, said: "We want to show that we are not powerless victims. These are drastic times for our people and require drastic measures."
The human rights case was announced at the climate talks in Milan, Italy, where 140 countries are trying to put the finishing touches to the Kyoto protocol, the first international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. The backing of Russia, which is hesitating about ratifying the agreement, is required to bring the protocol into force. The US is trying to persuade the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, not to sign the protocol.
The Inuit have no voice at the conference, since they are not a nation state, but Mrs Watt-Cloutier said: "We are already bearing the brunt of climate change - without our snow and ice our way of life goes. We have lived in harmony with our surroundings for millennia, but that is being taken away from us.
"People worry about the polar bear becoming extinct by 2070 because there will be no ice from which they can hunt seals, but the Inuit face extinction for the same reason and at the same time.
"This a David and Goliath story. Most people have lost contact with the natural world. They even think global warming has benefits, like wearing a T-shirt in November, but we know the planet is melting and with it our vibrant culture, our way of life. We are an endangered species, too."
Mrs Watt-Cloutier comes from Pangirtung, north of Iqaluit, in Canada. The entire area should already be ice-bound, and winter hunting would normally have begun, but in Frobisher Bay, the home of both polar bears and Inuit, the water is still clear. "We now have weeks of uncertainty about when the ice will come," she said. "In the spring the ice melts not at the end of June but weeks earlier. Sometimes the ice is so thin hunters fall through.
"The ocean is too warm. Our elders, who instruct the young on the ways of the winter and what to expect, are at a loss. Last Christmas after the ice had formed the temperature rose to 4C [39F] and it rained. We'd never known it before."
Among the problems the Inuit face is permafrost melting, which has destroyed the foundations of houses, eroded the seashore and forced people to move inland. Airport runways, roads and harbours are also collapsing.
The Washington-based commission, which is the Americas' equivalent of the European court of human rights, will be asked to rule against the US government but has no power to enforce any action. However, the Inuit believe the publicity the case will provide, particularly with hearings in Washington, will embarrass George Bush's government and educate US public opinion about the consequences of profligate ways of living.
"Europeans understand this issue but in America the public know little or nothing and politicians are in denial," Mrs Watt-Cloutier said. "We are hunters and we are trained to go for the heart. The heart of the problem is in Washington."
She hoped that by winning the case Inuit would win a voice at climate talks. "The Inuit people see me as one of the leaders, with the same status as the ministers here. As a nation we are badly affected by climate change, but in these negotiations we have no voice.
"We intend to get one so our representative can sit round the table with other ministers and demand action to save our people."
Arctic dwellers
· Inuit means "the people" and is the generic name given to indigenous people of the Arctic. Though the word "eskimo", meaning "eaters of raw meat", is still used to described Inuit, it is generally considered derogatory.
· Inuit populations include Canadian Inuit, Alaska's Inupiat and Yupik people, and the Russian Yupik.
· Inuit are descendants of the Thule people who arrived in Alaska about AD500 and reached Canada in 1000. Alaskan Inuit now live mainly in the North Slope boroughs and the Bering Straits region.
· Inuit rely heavily on subsistence fishing and hunting whales, walruses and seals.
· The arrival of Europeans damaged the traditional Inuit way of life and since the 1970s their leaders have been campaigning for greater rights and asserting their territorial claims.
· In more recent times Inuit have banded together to fight against environmental damage to their homelands.
Alan Power