Inject respect into climate debate

Inject respect into climate debate

Posted: December 13, 2007
by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today

Another startling report of accelerated Arctic melting surfaced recently. It probably did not incite any more fear than the last report of Arctic melting did, but this one appeared as world governments debated in Bali over a new climate treaty. ''The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming,'' said a NASA climatologist. ''Now ... the canary has died. It is time to start getting out of the coal mines.'' It is unnecessary to make metaphor with climate change; the indigenous peoples who struggle daily to survive amid rapidly changing ecosystems have been warning us for years.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference was held Dec. 3 - 14 on the Indonesian island of Bali. The purpose for the gathering of representatives from 190 world nations, together with intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations and the media, was to create a ''road map'' for a future international agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol when its first commitment period expires in 2012. Delegates hope to soon begin drafting a plan to continue cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists believe play a major part in global climate change.

Predictably, the story that emerged from Bali during the conference was of the United States' opposition to mandatory targets for emissions cuts. Famously the only industrialized nation not to ratify the Kyoto treaty, the United States argued that target ranges for rich nations' emissions should be voluntary. American negotiators believe emissions caps would threaten economic gains that could fund technological initiatives against climate change. The notion that the solution lies in more industry and that the degradation of natural resources is simply collateral damage until we can manufacture our way to safety has accelerated the manmade effects of global warming.

Whether there is still a level of expectation among the international community that the United States will lead the way in this global challenge is questionable. The Bush administration's political proximity with corporate interests continues to roll back decades of environmental progress. It's no surprise that it would now resist international pressure to take significant measures to curb harmful effects of climate change. The dichotomous nature of the United States' stand on climate change is dictated from the top down, reminding us of the elders' ominous warning. When the trees begin to die from the top down, it is a signal that the Earth is purifying itself. Dispatches from world indigenous communities continue to report this phenomenon.

Critics said, and we agree, that leaving Bali without clear targets renders the conference meaningless. ''I do not need a paper from Bali in which we only say, 'OK, we'll meet next year again,''' said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Hans Verlome, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Change Program, also urged more participation from the U.S. leadership. ''We did not come to Bali to just have another process, and we have two years of talks. It is time to get on with it,'' he said. Already there has been too much talk and not enough action at the world and national levels.

The issue's rising status in the collective American psyche comes at a moment of empowerment for the indigenous peoples and organizations of North America. There is an opportunity now to influence attitudes about sustainable living, to nudge the discourse beyond ''green'' shopping and to present a philosophy of unity with all of nature. The Lakota oration mitakuye oyasin, or ''all my relations,'' acknowledges this relationship and is a way of thinking that guides many indigenous peoples.

This is not to say that every step to fight global warming is in accord with indigenous ways of thinking and being. Many at the Bali conference protested the deliberation process, which did not specifically include participation from indigenous nations or peoples. The International Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change complained that some renewable energy projects and efforts to raise biofuel crops encroached on their lands. ''Indigenous and traditional communities should be supported in their unique adaptation to marginal areas and ecosystem boundaries,'' said Pablo Eyzaguirre from Bioversity International, an agricultural research center. ''We need to respect ecosystem buffers that also provide livelihoods, sacred spaces and pathways for traditional peoples.''

Daniel Wildcat, Euchee Muscogee, co-founded the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center at Haskell Indian Nations University, an environmental research center guided by American Indian and Alaska Native Earth knowledge and wisdom. We share Wildcat's views (via a June 2006 interview published in the IEEE GRS-S Newsletter) on the interconnectedness with the natural world that is possible, and which might be an antidote to global issues like climate change. He said, ''A large share of what humankind needs today, in order to live well on this planet, is knowledge that is borne of a keen attentiveness to the relations and relationships we humans are surrounded by and in which we participate. The key point humankind must keep in mind is that we are just one small part, albeit it an important one, of life on this planet. I am excited about the opportunities for indigenous people to help solve some of the problems modern humankind faces.''

In the relatively short life of climate change politics, indigenous peoples rarely have been accorded a voice in international, academic, scientific or public policy. There has existed a tendency of the international community to ignore not only the prophecies of ancient cultures but also their dire warnings based on contemporary experiences. Even organizations of the highest authority fail to recognize indigenous peoples as little more than victims, vulnerable populations for whom climate change is already proving catastrophic. The slowly increasing participation of indigenous peoples at international forums on climate change is encouraging, but a real sea change will occur as practices within the framework of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are implemented.