Protecting The Arctic

Protecting the Arctic explores some of the ways in which indigenous peoples have taken political action regarding Arctic environmental and sustainable development issues, and investigates the involvement of indigenous peoples in international environmental policy- making. Nuttall illustrates how indigenous peoples make claims that their own forms of resource management not only have relevance in an Arctic regional context, but provide models for the inclusion of indigenous values and environmental knowledge in the design, negotiation and implementation of global environmental policy.

Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska is one of the most contested landscapes in all of North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Considered sacred by Indigenous peoples in Alaska and Canada and treasured by environmentalists, the refuge provides life-sustaining habitat for caribou, polar bears, migratory birds, and other species. For decades, though, the fossil fuel industry and powerful politicians have sought to turn this unique ecosystem into an oil field. Defending the Arctic Refuge tells the improbable story of how the people fought back. At the center of the story is the unlikely figure of Lenny Kohm (1939–2014), a former jazz drummer and aspiring photographer who passionately committed himself to Arctic Refuge activism. With the aid of a trusty slide show, Kohm and representatives of the Gwich'in Nation traveled across the United States to mobilize grassroots opposition to oil drilling. From Indigenous villages north of the Arctic Circle to Capitol Hill and many places in between, this book shows how Kohm and Gwich'in leaders and environmental activists helped build a political movement that transformed the debate into a struggle for environmental justice. In its final weeks, the Trump administration fulfilled a long-sought dream of drilling proponents: leasing much of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain for fossil fuel development. Yet the fight to protect this place is certainly not over. Defending the Arctic Refuge traces the history of a movement that is alive today—and that will continue to galvanize diverse groups to safeguard this threatened land.

A “courageous and revelatory memoir” (Naomi Klein) chronicling the life of the leading Indigenous climate change, cultural, and human rights advocate For the first ten years of her life, Sheila Watt-Cloutier traveled only by dog team. Today there are more snow machines than dogs in her native Nunavik, a region that is part of the homeland of the Inuit in Canada. In Inuktitut, the language of Inuit, the elders say that the weather is Uggianaqtuq—behaving in strange and unexpected ways. The Right to Be Cold is Watt-Cloutier’s memoir of growing up in the Arctic reaches of Quebec during these unsettling times. It is the story of an Inuk woman finding her place in the world, only to find her native land giving way to the inexorable warming of the planet. She decides to take a stand against its destruction. The Right to Be Cold is the human story of life on the front lines of climate change, told by a woman who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Indigenous environmental, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world. Raised by a single mother and grandmother in the small community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Watt-Cloutier describes life in the traditional ice-based hunting culture of an Inuit community and reveals how Indigenous life, human rights, and the threat of climate change are inextricably linked. Colonialism intervened in this world and in her life in often violent ways, and she traces her path from Nunavik to Nova Scotia (where she was sent at the age of ten to live with a family that was not her own); to a residential school in Churchill, Manitoba; and back to her hometown to work as an interpreter and student counselor. The Right to Be Cold is at once the intimate coming-of-age story of a remarkable woman, a deeply informed look at the life and culture of an Indigenous community reeling from a colonial history and now threatened by climate change, and a stirring account of an activist’s powerful efforts to safeguard Inuit culture, the Arctic, and the planet.

This book addresses critical questions and analyses key issues regarding Indigenous/Aboriginal Peoples and governance of land and protected areas in the Arctic. It brings together contributions from scientists, indigenous and non-indigenous researchers, local leaders, and members of the policy community that: document Indigenous/Aboriginal approaches to governance of land and protected areas at the local, regional and international level; explore new territorial governance models that are emerging as part of the Indigenous/Aboriginal governance within Arctic States, provinces, territories and regions; analyse the recognition or lack thereof concerning indigenous rights to self-determination in the Arctic; and examine how traditional decision-making arrangements and practices can be linked with governments in the process of good governance. The book highlights essential lessons learned, success stories, and remaining issues, all of which are useful to address issues of Arctic governance of land and protected areas today, and which could also be relevant for future governance arrangements.

Protecting the Arctic explores some of the ways in which indigenous peoples have taken political action regarding Arctic environmental and sustainable development issues, and investigates the involvement of indigenous peoples in international environmental policy- making. Nuttall illustrates how indigenous peoples make claims that their own forms of resource management not only have relevance in an Arctic regional context, but provide models for the inclusion of indigenous values and environmental knowledge in the design, negotiation and implementation of global environmental policy.

This report calls for a halt on Arctic oil drilling until: a pan-Arctic oil spill response standard is in place; a stricter financial liability regime for oil and gas operations is introduced that requires companies to prove that they can meet the costs of cleaning up; an oil and gas industry group is set up to peer-review companies' spill response plans and operating practices, reporting publicly; further independent research and testing on oil spill response techniques in Arctic conditions is conducted, including an assessment of their environmental side-effects; an internationally recognised environmental sanctuary is established in at least part of the Arctic. Drilling is only currently feasible in the Arctic during a short summer window and if a blow-out occurred just before the dark Arctic winter returned it may not be possible to cap it until the following summer - potentially leaving oil spewing out under the ice for six months or more with devastating consequences for wildlife. This report also warns that a collapse in summer Arctic sea-ice, increased methane emissions from thawing permafrost, melting of the Greenland ice-sheet and changes to the thermo-haline circulation could all have disastrous consequences for the world - pushing up sea levels and transforming weather patterns. Temperature rises in the Arctic are already affecting the UK's weather. The report points out that there are already more proven fossil fuel reserves in the world than can be burnt safely and calls on the Government to rethink its approach to combating climate change by tackling the supply of fossil fuels, as well as demand

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"The Arctic region is characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet, but is facing increasingly larger threats. These threats include the full range of stressors known from other parts of the world, namely habitat loss and fragmentation from infrastructure and industrial development, chemical pollution, overharvesting, climate change and invasive species infestations. Many of these pressures are mainly globally driven, including climate change, long-range transported pollution and even invasive species infestations. Others, such as harvesting and fragmentation are directly under Arctic governance, though often driven from demands outside of the Arctic region. This report takes a broad view of existing multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and examines the role of the global environment in impacting and influencing the efficiency of Arctic MEAs in protecting biodiversity and in sustainable development. The report allows governing and scientific bodies of MEAs, as well as national decision-makers, to better direct their programmes of work and other activities to address the needs of Arctic biodiversity and the region's local and Indigenous Peoples"--From publisher website.