What are the effects of climate change on the First Nations?
The First Nations are amongst the first to undergo the effects of climate change since they are largely dependent on their resources and environment, but also because of the close relationship they have with these. In addition, climate change increases the difficulties already experienced by the First Nations, such as political and economic marginalization, the loss of land resources, discrimination and unemployment.
Climate change represents threat and a danger for the survival of communities that contribute very little to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) ; on the contrary, they often contribute to the preservation of ecosystems, lands and territories through their lifestyle and certainly improve the resiliency of their environnement.
Consider the First Nations of the Arctic region who are strongly affected by climate change. Their lifestyle depends on hunting polar bear, walrus, seal or caribou, fishing and gathering, for their diet but also for the local economy and be able to conserve the basis of their social and cultural identity. Climate change leads to a change in the presence of species on the territory, it modifies the existence of traditional foods and plants, makes weather forecasts less reliable and travel on ice less safe.
All these changes deeply disturb the daily lives of the Arctic First Nations and leads to health and food security risks.
In general, climate change has all sorts of impacts on the daily lives of First Nations people, such as:
- Unpredictability of seasons and modifications to climate and weather models. A large part of Aboriginal peoples have phenological markers indicating the change in seasons. These include the appearance of certain birds, the reproduction of animals or the flowering of certain plants. With climate change, many of these indicators appear earlier or occur independently of seasons for which they had previously been indicators.
- Modification of life styles (ex: accessibility of ice roads).
- Indigenous plants and animals cannot adapt when the climate changes too quickly.
- Increase in invasive non-native species representing a danger for the balance of local ecosystems.
- Reduction of the number and quality of water sources
- Ancestral and treaty rights concerning hunting, fishing and water use could be threatened â¦
Climate change strongly affects the First Nations, and despite this, they succeed in adapting and finding solutions by drawing from their traditional knowledge.
So to try to reduce your impact on the environment and preserve Mother Earth, you should act now.