[Marxism] The Earth is Melting, Arctic Native Leader Warns

["Macdonald Stainsby" <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Earth is Melting, Arctic Native Leader Warns
By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC*, September 16, 2004 (ENS) - An Arctic native leader
offered a passionate plea to the U.S. government and its citizens
Wednesday to aggressively combat climate change. Addressing a Senate
Commerce Committee hearing on global warming, Inuit Circumpolar Conference
Chair Sheila Watt-Cloutier said the Inuit are already suffering dramatic
changes to their Arctic environment.

Watt-Cloutier, who represents the 155,000 Inuit in Greenland, Canada,
Alaska and the Russian Federation, described the Inuit struggle as "a
snapshot of what is happening to the planet."

"We find ourselves at the very cusp of a defining event in the history of
this planet," Watt-Cloutier told the senators. "The Earth is literally
melting."

Inuit hunters and elders have been observing changes to their environment
for decades, Watt-Cloutier said, including unpredictable weather, melting
of permafrost and glaciers, decreasing sea ice, as well as the presence of
new species such as barn owls, robins and mosquitoes never seen before by
the Inuit people.

"If we can reverse the emissions of greenhouse gases in time to save the
Arctic, then we can spare untold suffering," said Watt-Cloutier.

"Protect the Arctic and you will save the planet," she said. "Use us as
your early warning system. Use the Inuit story as a vehicle to reconnect
us all so that we can understand the people and the planet are one."

Inuit elders fear climate change may mean their children and grandchildren
will not be able to continue their culture. (Photo courtesy Government of
the Northwest Territories http://www.gov.nt.ca>)

Committee chair John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said a recent trip to
the Arctic showed him that "these impacts are real and consistent with
earlier scientific projects that the Arctic region would experience the
impacts of climate change at a faster rate than the rest of the world."

Wednesday's hearing was part of an ongoing effort by McCain to rally more
support for the climate stewardship bill he and Connecticut Democrat Joe
Lieberman have coauthored.

"We are the first generation to influence the climate and the last
generation to escape the consequences," McCain said.

The Arizona Senator's legislation would require some sectors of the U.S.
economy to enact mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions -
the leading greenhouse gas.

The bill was defeated in the Senate last October by a vote of 53 to 44, but
supporters of the legislation said the vote was a watershed moment in the
U.S. debate over the issue of global warming.

It was the first action on the issue by the Senate in six years.

McCain said he is determined not to abandon the proposal, but he
acknowledges the bill has little support in the House or within the Bush
administration.

Although a new report from the White House on climate change cited studies
that linking rising temperatures to human activities, "officials have said
there is no change in the administration's policy position," McCain said.

President Bush is loathe to enforce mandatory greenhouse gas emissions
reductions on American industries and has repeatedly questioned the
science that points to the effects of these emissions on the climate.

Few doubt global warming is an international concern, but critics of the
administration note that the United States, which is responsible for more
than 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, must play a leading
role in efforts to limit consumption of fossil fuels.

New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg said it is politics - not science -
that is prohibiting U.S. action on global warming.

Senator John McCain says he is convinced by scientific evidence that
climate change is a pressing issue of global importance, but he faces an
uphill battle to push the U.S. Congress to act.

"I am disturbed by the administration's shifting position on climate
change," Lautenberg said. "We need leadership at the top and we are not
getting it."

The hearing included testimony from authors of two recent studies that
indicate failure to curb global warming could have devastating effects.

One study, published in August in the journal "Science" shows that heat
waves in North America and Europe will become more intense, more frequent
and longer lasting during this century.

The second study, published in August in the "Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences" details how global warming will bring California a
dramatic increase in extreme heat and heat-related mortality and
significant reductions in Sierra snowpack, with cascading impacts on water
supply.

The California study focused on two scenarios and showed that significant
changes in temperature are likely regardless of what is done in the
immediate future to reduce emissions.

"The greenhouse gases that we are emitting today will reside in the
atmosphere for decades, perhaps for a century - that makes this a pressing
problem," said study coauthor Daniel Cayan, a research meteorologist, with
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San
Diego.

Under the study's lower emissions scenario, summer temperatures in
California will still rise 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the
century, with the length of the heat wave season extending from an average
of 115 days in a year to 149 to 162 days

But if nothing is done to curb the use of fossil fuels, summer
temperatures rise a dramatic 7.5 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, according to
the study, with the length of the heat wave season increasing to 178 to
204 days.

"It is pretty clear that when we think of our kids and their kids they
will be wanting to deal with the lower emissions scenario," Cayan said.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is the chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference,
which represents 155,000 Inuit living in the Arctic regions of Alaska,
Canada, Greenland and Russia. (<http://www.inuit.org>)

Watt-Cloutier told the commitee that the observations of the Inuit are
backed by the findings of Western scientists, in particular the work of
the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA).

The ACIA is an international team of 300 scientists, experts, and
indigenous residents of the Arctic region who are preparing a
comprehensive analysis of the impacts and consequences of climate
variability and changes across the region.

Their final report is slated for release this November and paints a
worrying future for the Inuit.

The ACIA has found that in Alaska and western Canada, the average winter
temperatures have increased by as much as 3 to 4 degrees Celsius over the
past 60 years.

During the past 30 years, Arctic sea ice extent has decreased, on average,
by about 10 percent, and this change has been 20 percent faster during the
past two decades.

Continued melting of sea ice will lead to significant changes in the
surface reflectivity, cloudiness, humidity, exchanges of heat and
moisture, and ocean circulation, in particular along coastlines and near
ice margins.

Watt-Cloutier said two major conclusions of ACIA report are that marine
species dependent on sea ice face an uncertain future and that global
warming will disrupt - and potentially destroy - the Inuit culture.

Warmer climates could bring insects with diseases the Inuit have never
known and the species they depend upon - such as the polar bear - are
unlikely to survive if global warming continues unabated.

"The ancient connection to our hunting culture may disappear within my
grandson's lifetime," Watt-Cloutier said. "My Arctic homeland is now the
health barometer for the planet."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2004. All Rights Reserved.


--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.

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