Climate Change: European Development Days

SWEDEN - STOCKHOLM - European Development Days 2009 - 24 October - Climate change : The road to Copenhagen - Climate change is now - Are we listening? - Mary SIMON, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) © EC/CE

On Saturday October 24, 2009, a global day of action for climate change, a day when Canadians marched to Parliament Hill to express their concerns on this important matter, I spoke on the same issues at the European Development Days Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

The title of my presentation: was "My Homeland Is Melting".

In the presentation I addressed the many international leaders who gathered at this event regarding how climate change is affecting our homeland, our people, and our way of life - we are feeling the effects of climate change on a daily basis.

I have proposed that the G-20 create a $20-billion fund to help areas of the world - such as the Arctic - deal with the current measures of adaptation to climate change, which we in the Arctic are already having to deal with, such as the prospects of moving entire communities due to melting permafrost and the erosion of shorelines.

I am telling them that environmental changes of all kinds are taking place at a rate that may soon exceed the threshold of our people to respond to. That said I am not portraying Inuit as simple "victims" of climate change. Our people have occupied the Arctic for thousands of years.

We are on the front lines of climate change and this presents us with both unique and exceptional challenges. Over those thousands of years we have developed a language and culture that is deeply rooted in our environment. This means that we also have unique and exceptional knowledge about the northern environment - and we want the opportunity to put that knowledge and experience to work and to be part of the solution.

I believe that as human beings we are charged with the responsibility of helping to insure a safe and healthy world for our children, and our children’s children, for all time. My message is that Inuit are not bystanders in this complex issue, and we are unwilling to be considered, or treated, as such.