It’s Time to Humanize Climate Change Issues, Says Sheila Watt-cloutier – CIGI

October 22, 2018

Climate change issues have risen again to the forefront of public discussion with the release of a special report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. But Inuit and the world’s Indigenous peoples live with the impacts of climate change every day, even after the news cycle moves on.

The IPCC report paints a bleak picture that humans have already caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming and at the current rate this will reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052. Temperatures are rising faster in the Arctic and climate-related risks increase for natural and human systems as temperatures rise.

The IPCC report notes that the greatest challenge in the fight against climate change is not the lack of scientific know-how, but the lack of political will. It seems that politicians and voters are not recognizing how profoundly climate change will affect them, their children and grandchildren. Inuit and Indigenous peoples are well placed to add that human understanding to spur action.

Read More: https://www.cigionline.org/articles/its-time-humanize-climate-change-issues-says-sheila-watt-cloutier