Since the name of Sheila Watt-Cloutier, to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2007, jumped to all media, the limited data on their activities had been asleep the sleep of the just in my files. Today, on October 15, 2009, is the appointed day to participate online in THE BLOG ACTION DAY '09 on environmental protection and I think it's time to present at this modest blog to a great fighter.
SHEILA WATT-CLOUTIER raised in the tiny Inuit community on the southern coast of Ungava Bay, in the frozen north of Canada. Today is the representative elect of 150,000 inhabitants that make up the Inuit people scattered around the Arctic in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka, Russia.
Along with the organization UNEP played an important role in the task of making the world's governments to agree the phasing of a "dozen dirty "persistent chemicals were contaminating his people. Are industrial toxins that can cause infertility, cancer and brain damage. Also undertook a campaign against global warming .
This is an edited transcript of testimony before Congress of the United States in September 2004:
" N you are on the verge of a turning point in the history of the planet. The Earth is melting and we all come together to address efficiently the problem of climate change.
While global warming affects the entire planet, there is scientific consensus that is impacting the Arctic much faster. Our elders have been experiencing these changes since the mid 70's. The relationship of Inuit with the environment remains strong, and many of us still rely on land and sea to sustain our families. Our elders and hunters have an intimate knowledge of land, sea and ice, and have observed disturbing changes in climate, environment and wildlife in the Arctic. These changes include:
1. permafrost melting
2. longer seasons without ice ocean
3. new species of birds and fish-owls, robins, pin-tailed ducks and salmon-invading the region.
4. invasions of mosquitoes and gnats
5. unpredictable sea ice conditions
6. Melting glaciers, creating torrents instead of streams.
Our observations are confirmed by a formal scientific assessment carried out by over 300 scientists and many indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic. The study concludes that it is very likely that our longstanding relationship with our hunting culture may disappear in the period of the life of my grandson. Climate change is happening first and fastest in the Arctic. My homeland is the health barometer for the planet. Looking at what is already happening in remote Inuit villages in Alaska (as in Shishmaref, near its eastern end, which literally being battered to the point that is falling into the sea) we reveal the future dangers for more populated areas Florida, Louisiana and California.
If we invest, time, emissions of pollutants that cause climate change to save the Arctic the most devastating impact of global warming, we can spare untold suffering for hundreds of millions people around the globe. The global warming unites us all. Use what is happening in the Arctic, the Inuit History "as a vehicle to restore the partnership between us, so we understand that the planet and its people are one. The Inuit hunter who falls through the unpredictable sea ice decline is linked to the cars we drive, the industries which rely upon, and the disposable world in which we have become.
Climate change is a matter of survival of humanity. It is the world's most pressing problem we face today. Protect the Arctic and save the planet! "
For those who are curious and want to complete a short resume of Sheila Watt-Cloutier, find online information on numerous occasions that have been awarded prizes and awards in recognition of his work. Because it is very outstanding and meritorious work of this tireless crusader on behalf of his people and for their survival and livelihoods are at stake: the Inuit can not go the stock market depend on the nature that is his store and his livelihood, "says Sheila, however, not just of the Inuit, the consequences to all ends up.
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