...Inuit cite global warming as human-rights violation

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Climate-Change Victims Chip Away U.S. Procrastination

Inuit cite global warming as human-rights violation

by Megan Tady
As the ice they depend on for their way of life melts away around them, indigenous people of the Arctic are taking a crack at Washington in international court.

Mar. 1 – While the rest of the world debated global warming, Roy Nageak watched the ice melt and recede in his Arctic backyard. Nageak, an Inuit, lives in the northernmost settlement in Alaska. Growing up, he recalls that there was "always ice."

"There were great pads of ice that were solid and many feet thick," Nageak told The NewStandard.

But Nageak and other Inuit, who live a world away from burning smokestacks and traffic jams are among the first victims of global warming. And human rights groups say the Inuit case mirrors the plight of other populations around the globe who are expected to face the ramifications of climate change sooner, and more harshly, than the countries most responsible for the gases linked to global warming.

"Now, we are lucky to get four feet of ice because of what is happening outside our region," Nageak said. "It's a lifestyle that is prevalent in another society that is so far away from us, and it's affecting our way of life."

A 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment by international scientists found that "climate changes are being experienced particularly intensely in the Arctic" and that the "Inuit face major threats to their food security and hunting cultures."
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