Current Problems: Environment

Exploring Theme: "Climate Change"

Updates on this page: 28 (Filtered by Indigenous Group "Inuit")
 

April 10, 2024


Pay now or pay more later to prepare First Nations for climate emergencies

Cindy Woodhouse, the Assembly of First Nations’ national chief, at her swearing-in ceremony in December. Photo by Matteo Cimellaro / Canada’s National Observer  Canada’s National Observer: The price of doing nothing to adapt First Nation infrastructure to climate change will result in high costs for recovery, losses and redevelopment, according to an Assembly of First...

January 26, 2024


Western Arctic community say lives impacted by delay in opening of ice road

Climate scientists show the Arctic is one of the fastest warming areas on Earth.  APTN News: Community members in Aklavik are pointing to the effects on climate change for the delays in building an ice road that is critical to their daily lives in the winter. “It’s a tough thing to try and predict because...

January 22, 2024


Climate change is robbing Inuit of their food and culture, yet compensation is out of reach

By Matteo Cimellaro & John Woodside | News | January 22nd 2024 Inuit hunters’ boats struggle to break a passage through difficult sea ice conditions in Uummannaq, an island settlement placed well above the Arctic Circle in Greenland. Photo by Adam Sébire / Climate Visuals  Canada’s National Observer: In the rapidly warming Arctic, Inuit homes are falling into the ocean as coastlines quickly deteriorate....

November 10, 2023


‘We can’t be on the ice safely’: Inuit hunters say climate change is changing their lives

Hunters are forced to adapt their traditional practices due to climate change in the North Devon Manik plays with his sled dogs. Photo: Danielle Paradis/APTN  APTN News: The residents of two of the most northern communities in Canada, Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord say climate change is affecting many of their hunting and foraging practices....

June 26, 2023


Feds underfunding emergency preparation in First Nations communities says report

Emergency management monitoring is lacking, says the Auditor General in a new report  APTN News: A parliamentary committee says Indigenous Services Canada is failing to provide First Nations communities with adequate resources for emergency management to help mitigate the impacts of events like wildfires and floods. The standing committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs released...

June 14, 2023


During the worst wildfire season this century, Indigenous communities need to consider their participation in resource extraction: says researcher

37 per cent of the total burned forest area in Western Canada and the United States between 1986 and 2021 can be traced back to 88 major fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers. ‘These fires are a culmination of ongoing resource extraction projects’ says climate researcher APTN News: In light of increasing extreme weather and...

June 6, 2023


Spring wildfires costing Indigenous services ‘millions’ says minister

APTN News: The minister responsible for Indigenous services says her department is spending millions of dollars to support First Nations dealing with the early wildfire season. “The forecast doesn’t look good, it’s all across the country and the scientists are predicting severe wildfire risk for the months of June, July and August,” said Hajdu. According...

June 1, 2023


The Hamlet of Fort Chipewyan evacuates due to wildfires

By Danielle ParadisJun 01, 2023  Reports of looting in the area are not confirmed by RCMP  Nearly a 1,000 people in the community of Fort Chipewyan located 300 km north of Fort McMurray were ordered to leave their homes this week ahead of approaching wildfires. The remote location of Fort Chipewyan in Alberta is complicating the...

May 2, 2023


Climate change solutions becoming a ‘new way of colonizing’ Indigenous peoples, Inuit rep says

“We recognize our responsibility to our lands, waters and ice and future generations, and to our natural environment, so we have to be a part of this conversation with (the government) in equal ways.” —Dr. Amy Hudson WindSpeaker.com: Dr. Amy Hudson has returned from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) with renewed...

April 28, 2023


Inuit want access to loss and damage fund, Inuit Circumpolar Council president says

NationTalk: Canada’s National Observer – Inuit want direct access to a global fund dedicated to addressing destruction caused by climate change, the president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s Canadian arm says. Lisa Koperqualuk says loss and damage funding is needed in Inuit Nunangat, the homeland for Inuit, which is warming four times faster than the global average. Canada’s...

April 27, 2023


‘We will have to adapt’: Record high temperatures in Nunavik pose threat to Inuit way of life

‘Huge thaw’ in northern Quebec significantly reducing time out on land, says locals CBC News: Spring jackets were peeled off on Monday as people wore T-shirts and children biked around sunny and balmy Kuujjuaq, Que., in what became one of the warmest spring days the region has experienced to date. Environment and Climate Change Canada...

March 21, 2023


Why BC Needs a Climate Fund for First Nations

COP27 created a global loss and damages fund. David Eby’s government should do the same. The Tyee: COP27 ended in November with a historic agreement to establish a “loss and damages” fund to address the impacts of climate change on the most vulnerable nations.  Given the disasters B.C. has faced over the last couple of years, is...

March 20, 2023


Committee grills minister on failure to support First Nations during climate emergencies

‘The government should be ashamed,’ says NDP MP Blake Desjarlais as committee examines audit CBC News: Members of Parliament accused Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu of ducking accountability on Monday after the auditor general criticized her department’s ongoing failure to help First Nations deal with climate emergencies. Hajdu began the week flanked by her top...

February 28, 2023


A vanishing world: Winter sea ice is melting away from Labrador. For the Inuit way of life, it’s a death knell

CBC News: Crystal Allen-Webb hangs strips of moose meat to dry above her sink, her infant daughter babbling in a high chair beside her. It’s a frigid January evening in Nain — so cold the wind burns your eyelids raw — but the Allen-Webb house, warmed by a woodstove and a hot dinner, glows with...

January 25, 2023


Caribou summit asks a burning question: What’s the future of the Porcupine herd?

The Porcupine is ‘one of the biggest herds in the world.’ Will it stay that way? CBC News: The Porcupine caribou is one of the few barren-ground herds in the circumpolar world that remains strong and healthy — and the communities who rely on it want to make sure it stays that way.  This was...

January 17, 2023


Open Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau on Perpetuating Climate Injustice Against First Nations

NationTalk: Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Canada bears responsibility for the climate crisis that is driving humans to the precipice of a global catastrophe. While the Government of Canada has begun to acknowledge this crisis and has enacted some measures to try to help pull humanity back from the edge, two major problems characterize government action....

December 13, 2022


Indigenous Peoples have been the most effective stewards of animals and nature since time immemorial

Canada’s National Observer: About a million animal and plant species around the globe are on the verge of extinction — more than ever before in human history. As the world gathers in Montreal for COP15 (the UN biodiversity conference) to negotiate a deal to halt and reverse nature loss in the coming decade, calls to put Indigenous...

December 2, 2022


Government of Canada invests $3.8 million to support barren-ground caribou conservation in the Northwest Territories

Environment and Climate Change Canada: Caribou is an iconic species for Canadians and plays an important role in the culture and history of Indigenous peoples. The Government of Canada is determined to halt and reverse Canada’s biodiversity loss, and the decline of this species, by working in collaboration with the provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous...

November 23, 2022


Carbon trading: A tool for reconciliation or colonization?

NationTalk: Canada’s National Observer: Eriel Tchekwie Deranger’s home community of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is in what she calls a “sacrifice zone.” The nation borders the oil production epicentre of Canada: the oilsands, which leak toxic chemicals and wreak havoc on local ecosystems. The same is true for many nations within Treaty 8 territory, which covers northern Alberta....

November 21, 2022


World leaders must come out of their bubbles and hear other voices — especially Indigenous women — in climate-change debates

Indigenous people have unique relationships with their environment. If they listened, leaders would hear us urging a just transition away from fossil fuels. Toronto Star: World leaders making decisions around climate change must consider ideas originating beyond their own bubbles — especially those proffered by Indigenous people — if the problem is to be tackled...

October 13, 2022


‘Salmon are the heartbeat of our coast, our people, everything around us’

Coastal First Nations Community Storyteller Emilee Gilpin in conversation with Haíɫzaqv cultural leader and conservation manager Dúqva̓ísḷa, William Housty on Oct 11, 2022. Audio clips of the interview are included throughout the story. NationTalk: A shocking video of over 65,000 dead pink and chum salmon in Heiltsuk territory spread across social media last week and...

October 4, 2022


Put out wildfires before they begin with Indigenous fire stewardship

The Keremeos Creek wildfire southwest of Penticton, British Columbia on July 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Don Denton Canadian governments need to better engage with Indigenous fire stewardship to counter increased wildfire occurrence and severity Policy Options: by James Michael Collie, Hannah Verrips After the Keremeos Creek wildfire swept through the southern Interior of British Columbia in August,...

April 9, 2022


UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change includes the word “colonialism” for the first time

Toronto Star: Earlier this week, the world’s top scientists not only mentioned colonialism as a catalyst for causing climate change but also for making segments of the population vulnerable to its impacts today and in the future. “Present development challenges causing high vulnerability are influenced by historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism,...

March 26, 2021


Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

The AFN, based on direction from the Chiefs-in-Assembly, intervened in this case, as well as court cases in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta, arguing the Government of Canada has a direct legal obligation to recognize Aboriginal and Treaty rights in any legislative efforts to address climate change....

March 25, 2021


Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

Westaway Law Group – The majority judges noted that climate change “has had particularly serious effects on Indigenous peoples, threatening the ability of Indigenous communities in Canada to sustain themselves and maintain their traditional ways of life.” [para 11] They also acknowledged that, “the effects of climate change are and will continue to be experienced...

March 25, 2021


Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

Supreme Court finds that the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act 2018 is constitutional....

October 20, 2020


Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

Toronto Star – The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) reserved judgement on whether the federal government’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act 2018 (GGPPA) is constitutional following hearings on September 22 and 23 with the United Chiefs and Councils of Mnidoo Mnising (UCCMM), along with the Anishinabek Nation (AN), granted intervener status. The GGPPA sets minimum...

September 27, 2019


Cree Nation imput into climate change policy

Cree Nation Government – Proposed government action must be inclusive of Cree observations and efforts in the fight against climate change. Our privileged relationship with the territory is fundamental to the proper and meaningful development of government policies on climate change for Eeyou Istchee. Government policies must take into account the experiences of Indigenous communities...