well..i'm sure they can all get jobs making swim suits

[Guest guest]

Inuits Transformed by Global Warming

 

December 05, 2005 — By Phil Couvrette, Associated Press

MONTREAL — While Canada's isolated northern aboriginals are not sitting at the

same table as the 180 nations attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference, they

have a front-row seat to the chilling effects of global warming.

 

From eroding shorelines, to thinning ice and loss of hunting and polar bears,

Canadian Inuits of the Arctic north have seen rising temperatures transforming

their lives.

 

" Environmental changes of all kinds are coming at a rate and to an extent that

may exceed the threshold of Arctic peoples capacity to respond, " states a report

released Friday on the sidelines of the conference that is reviewing and

expanding on the Kyoto Protocol, which places greenhouse gas emissions caps on

industrialized nations.

 

The report is a result of workshops held across Canada's northern communities

between 2002 and 2005 and documents the changes seen in the Arctic through the

eyes of Canada's 45,000 Inuits, the natives who are called Eskimos in

neighboring Alaska.

 

Inuit leaders point to the increased frequency of freezing rain, thinning ice

and freakish weather patterns forcing centuries of habits to rapidly change.

 

Natives who have grown up in vast expanses are today finding themselves

stranded, their regular paths hindered by melting snow and ice, blocking their

hunting routes for the seals and polar bears that provide them food and warmth.

 

With warmer temperatures, some bacteria, plants and animals could disappear.

Polar bears and other animals that depend on sea ice to breed and forage are at

risk, scientists say, and some species could face extinction in a few decades.

 

Inuit leader Jose Kusugak said his community is bearing the brunt of pollution

by others. The United States contributes about one-fourth of the greenhouse

gases that scientists believe are exacerbating global warming and Canada is also

a top polluter.

 

" It is changing our way of life in every sense of the word, " Kusugak told The

Associated Press in an interview. He said the risk of skin cancer had also

increased in a community used to spending much of its time outdoors.

 

" People are not used to sunscreen but they need to wear it today, everybody is

getting burned, " Kusugak said. " When I was a kid, we liked to stay outside all

day and only went in to sleep. It was part of our life -- and now it is

changing. "

 

The shrinking access to food means Inuit are relying more on expensive,

store-bought foods, which is damaging diets and their overall health.

 

Kusugak said he brought along hunters, trappers and Inuit elders to the

conference to reassure them that people from the south were not indifferent to

their plight.

 

" It was important to show there are a lot of people in the world who care, " he

said.

 

Source: Associated Press

 

 

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain

other

sets of people are human: Aldous Huxley