At Cancun this week , where delegates are discussing the 16th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) demanded that the focus on states be shifted toward a stress on peoples and a more local and specific vision of climate impacts. Kirt Ejesiak, Vice President of ICC Canada, voiced the concerns of the Inuit. The ICC has demanded that Inuit and other indigenous peoples living in developed countries be eligible to get money from a proposed international fund which has so far been aimed at helping poor countries cope with climate change. A good article in Nunatsiaq Online is here.
There is no doubt that most Canadian Arctic settlements will be affected because they are predominantly in exposed locations on the shoreline. Iqaluit, a quickly sprawling capital of Nunavut with a population of about 7500 is the focus of my research on Inuit urbanization and Arctic cultural capitals. Iqaluit is mostly under 10m above high tide, rising to a ridge about 30m above sea level. The most dramatic case is Tuktoyaktuk, at the mouth of the the Mackenzie Delta on the Beaufort Sea where many parts of the town have been undermined by tidal action. However other settlements such as Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island, have already suffered from major storms; flooding washed out a key bridge.
Yesterday, Forum on the Future released its report ‘Megacities on the Move‘ that argues for planning to ensure more sustainable access to goods and services in cities. They present four scenarios as videos – one solution, ‘Planopolis’ is here. But urban access to goods such as food depends on long supply chains back to rural locations. We need solutions for the far corners of the world as well as cities.
- Rob