Inuits' petition blames Washington for global warming [View All]

[Thom Little]

Inuit leaders from the Arctic North who say their 5,000-year-old way of life is being eroded by global warming filed a petition Wednesday accusing the United States of being the chief culprit behind damaging climate change.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents the 155,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Russia and the United States, submitted the petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the investigative arm of the Organization of American States in Washington.

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The 163-page petition "seeking relief from violations resulting from global warming caused by acts and omissions of the United States," was filed on behalf of 63 Inuit leaders representing Inuits from Canada, Greenland, Russia and the United States.

"We seek a declaration from the commission that the United States, the world's source of more than 25 percent of greenhouse gases, is violating our human rights as outlined in the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man," Watt-Cloutier told a news conference on the sidelines of the U.N. Convention on Climate Change.


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