Indigenous Rights and Climate Change: An Analysis of Global
Environmental Governance in the Arctic Region AUTHOR: Briana Zhuang ABSTRACT: This essay will outline the various environmental threats in the Arctic region as well as the consequences they impose upon indigenous communities. This essay will provide a brief history of the global environmental governance undertaken by nation states with regard to climate change in the Arctic and conclude by analyzing the successes and failures of Arctic governance with respect to the incorporation of indigenous voices. Ultimately, this analysis finds that inadequate progress has been made to prevent or mitigate the disasters and environmental degradation caused by climate change, disproportionately impacting the indigenous populations of the Arctic region without remedy. INTRODUCTION The Arctic Region and Its Inhabitants Sitting at the top of the world, the Arctic region is home to millions of people, over 21,000 species of organisms, 10% of the world’s oil, 22% of the world’s fossil fuel reserves, and about 100,000 indigenous people (O’Neill, “The Arctic”). Indigenous populations inhabit territories in six sovereign states, including, but not limited to powerful countries such as the United States, Russia, and Canada. Indigenous peoples hold a unique connection to the land they live on, thriving on traditional and cultural practices (such as hunting, herding, and fishing) that are heavily dependent on the landscape and ecosystems (“Arctic Indigenous Peoples”). Therefore, climate change poses an important and unique threat to the environmental, social, and cultural well-being of the Arctic region and its indigenous inhabitants. In this essay, I will outline the various environmental threats in the Arctic region and the detrimental consequences they impose upon indigenous communities. I will then provide a brief history of global environmental governance undertaken by nation-states concerning climate change in the Arctic. Then I will analyze the successes and failures of Arctic governance with respect to the incorporation of indigenous voices. Through this essay, I argue that inadequate progress has been made to prevent and mitigate the disasters and environmental degradation caused by climate change, disproportionately affecting the indigenous populations in the Arctic region. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN THE ARCTIC
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are harmful chemicals prone to long-range transport through the
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atmosphere. They can be transported from all over the world through wind, water, and other weather patterns. They also resist biodegradation (hence ‘persistent’) and remain in the environment for long periods of time (Selin 106). Due to their expansive range of transport and resistance to degradation, these chemicals travel from all around the globe and accumulate in the Arctic region. Once there, these chemicals accumulate in the Arctic carbon sink, an area in which harmful substances are stored in the land. This has disastrous effects on the wildlife, as these toxins begin to bioaccumulate in individual specimens and consequently biomagnify in individuals up the food chain (106). As animals higher up in the food chain (such as seals and whales) consume other animals, they ingest the biotoxins in their prey. In turn, these biotoxins remain in the systems of predator animals; thus, animals higher up on the food chain hold higher levels of toxins. At the top of the food chain are humans, specifically the indigenous peoples that reside in the Arctic and live off the land by hunting and fishing (O’Neill, “The Arctic”). In this way, POPs present a severe threat to the health of indigenous peoples in the Arctic. In the 1980s, indigenous peoples learned that they were being “poisoned from afar” as the consequences of POPs became more apparent (“Climate Change”). A study showed that levels of PCBs, a persistent organic pollutant, in pregnant Inuit women were much higher than the national average as a result of POP bioaccumulation and biomagnification. (Koivurova 135). Sheila Watt-Coultier, an indigenous rights activist, politician, and leader explains that nursing mothers were hesitant to nurse their own babies as a result of the fear that they would poison their children (“Climate Change”). POPs present a hazardous threat to both the ecosystems and wildlife of the Arctic as well as the indigenous
