http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/179329
Tristan Pearce Ruth DeSantis Inuit in the Canadian Arctic have long warned that the climate is changing. In Nunavut an Inuit hunter clings onto broken ice, desperately fighting not to slip into the frigid waters, his heart pumps furiously as he scrambles, boots slipping on the wet ice, gravity pushing him closer to the open water, to reach safety. His snow machine, the only means of transportation he has during the long winter months, sinks quickly but he somehow manages to stay dry and seek refuge on stable ice; others have not been so lucky. His story, like others before him, fails to make the news. It is a story that has become all too common across the Canadian Arctic and has been too easily forgotten. Last Friday, scientists from around the world gathered in Paris to release the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. This is the fourth IPCC report since 1990 and convincingly reaffirms that climate change is caused by the human burning of fossil fuels. In the wake of the IPCC report ? and the daily reality of living with a changing climate ? Canadian voters are making the environment a top priority. We in southern Canada are finally accepting what Inuit in the North have been trying to tell us for the past two decades: The climate is changing! Despite early warnings from the Arctic, we ? individuals, households, communities, businesses and governments ? have taken, at best, limited action to address climate change. As a result, we have committed the Earth to some degree of future warming despite even the most aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. While Ottawa scrambles to assemble a federal climate change plan muddled in partisan politics, Inuit in Canada are moving ahead and are already leading climate change adaptation planning for the Arctic. The Nunavut government recognizes that climate change poses major economic, environmental and social challenges to the people of Nunavut and is committed to working with communities to develop adaptation plans that will address the impacts of climate change on social, environmental, economic and health sectors. Workshops have been held in communities across the North documenting local experiences coping with climate change. The challenge now is to incorporate climate change adaptation into community planning and decision making. The following is a list of key aspects of adaptation planning that have been learned in the North and have application for climate change adaptation planning in southern communities: Community engagement in adaptation planning is essential. The effects of climate change are highly localized and will be conditioned by local factors including economy, geography, resource-dependence and infrastructure. Local and scientific knowledge can contribute to adaptation planning. Climate change will be experienced together with other stresses already present in a community. It is therefore essential to consider multiple drivers of cumulative change in adaptation planning. Adaptation planning should, when possible, be linked with existing policy processes and/or evolve within existing institutions. Adaptations to climate change will not necessarily be in response to climate change alone but may be in response to stresses already present in the community. These elements of climate change adaptation planning are already being recognized in the Arctic, where Inuit leaders in Nunavut have taken the initiative to prepare their communities to deal with future climate change. It is time for southern Canada to stop pondering what to do about climate change, take ownership of the problem, and address it. This involves implementing international agreements that work to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and working with communities across Canada on climate change adaptation planning. As Canada formulates its approach to dealing with climate change, we can learn from adaptation experiences already underway in the Arctic. -- Darryl McMahon It's your planet. If you won't look after it, who will? The Emperor's New Hydrogen Economy http://www.econogics.com/TENHE/ _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
