Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 12/08/2008 11:28:53 AM PST by presidio9
Chief Bill Erasmus of the Dene nation in northern Canada brought a stark warning about the climate crisis: The once abundant herds of caribou are dwindling, rivers are running lower and the ice is too thin to hunt on.
Erasmus raised his concerns in recent days on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference, seeking to ensure that North America's indigenous peoples are not left out in the cold when it comes to any global warming negotiations.
Erasmus, the 54-year-old elected leader of 30,000 native Americans in Canada, and representatives of other indigenous peoples met with the U.N.'s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, and have lobbied national delegations to recognize them as an "expert group" that can participate in the talks like other nongovernment organizations.
"We bring our traditional knowledge to the table that other people don't have," he said.
Nearly 11,000 national and environmental delegates from 190 countries are negotiating a treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which regulates emissions of carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming. The protocol expires in 2012.
The alliance of native peoples include groups from the forests of Borneo to the depths of the Amazon.
De Boer said he advised the alliance to draw up a proposal and muster support among the national delegations to have their group approved by the countries involved in the talks.
"To give indigenous people and local communities a voice in these discussions is very important," said Kim Carstensen, the climate change director for WWF International.
Erasmus, from Yellow Knife in Canada's Northwest Territories about 300 miles (480 kilometers) south of the Arctic Circle, brings firsthand experience of climate change.
The caribou, or reindeer, herds are declining across North America and northern Europe, he said.
"We can't hunt
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I’m sure no one is buying him drinks to spout such science.
Call Katy Sebellius and ask her how she’s coped with the disappearance of the ice sheet in Kansas.
Herds may be thinning. I don’t like that. There are many causes - none of which have been adequately explored in this article.
However, linking this to anything to do with “warming,” and worse, anything to do with UN clown-science, makes this article a joke.
Typical journalism.
” the ice is too thin to hunt on.”
Move to Minnesota, we’re driving on it....
Well, I guess he can now hunt moose, elk, and mule deer as they will be migrating north to escape the excessive heat.
|
1992-2000 |
|||
| Year | Eastern Range | Western Range | Total |
| 1992 | 8,602 | 14,842 | 23,444 |
| 1995 | 11,766 (increase 36.8%) |
6,327 (decrease 57.4%) |
18,093 (decrease 22.8%) |
| 1996 | 9,061 (decrease 23.0%) |
10,669 (increase 68.6%) |
19,730 (increase 9.0%) |
| 2000 | 12,833 (increase 41.6%) |
14,295 (increase 34.0%) |
27,128 (increase 37.5%) |
| Census counts of the number of caribou in the Central Arctic caribou herd including ranges without oil fields (Eastern Range), ranges with oil field development (Western Range), and the entire herd. The percent increase or decrease from the previous census is indicated below the census number. | |||
My father worked the pipeline in Alaska for many years and told me that herds of Caribou were finding shelter in the shadow of the pipeline which is heated. This gives them a prime location with which to calve their young.
***Chief Bill Erasmus of the Dene nation in northern Canada brought a stark warning about the climate crisis: The once abundant herds of caribou are dwindling, rivers are running lower and the ice is too thin to hunt on. ****
The Dene of the four corners area cope. Why can’t you!
The ironic thing is the caribou actually like heat. Studies showed the herds grew in Alaska after the construction of the oil pipeline. They’d nest themselves near it and thrived from the increased heat. So.....
Drill Baby Drill!!!
If they talked to Natives in Alaska they would hear a different story about caribou. Of course that’s why they aren’t talking to them.
The Dene in Central Mexico did more than cope ~ they took the place over and began dining on members of surrounding enemy tribes.
I can’t speak for the Dene people of northern Canada. Perhaps their hunting style is as clean as the wind-driven snow. However, I can speak to what I witnessed along the Kuskokwim River in Alaska, and what a friend who is reliable observer of things said he saw on the Seward Peninsula near Nome.
Here is the hunting technique which I witnessed among Native hunters, and which my friend also claims to have witnessed a few hundred miles to the north:
- Corral the caribou into a tight circle with several snowmachines.
- Fire wildly into the herd, waiting for some of the caribou to fall.
- When enough of the caribou have fallen to meet your needs, or the time you want to spend dressing the meat, drive up to the dead caribou and start carving.
As a result of this technique, I never had a hunting trip in those parts without running across at least one caribou with a wounded leg or a festering scar.
This hunting technique was, at least in my presence, only used by the Native hunters. The non-Native hunters were far more circumspect and went far out of their way to make sure a wounded animal was followed and killed.
Another interesting bit of environmental lore is that every warm-blooded mammal larger than a mouse was killed once it neared the village, no matter the time of year or the hunting regulation. Poaching wasn’t just common; it was the normal way of life. An Alaska state biologist once whispered (literally) to me that they call areas around many Native villages “death zones” for the lack of wildlife.
There was more wildlife in Palmer and Anchorage than I saw out in the Bush. More respect for hunting and fishing regulations, too.
Maybe these Canadians are cut from a different cloth than the Natives in Alaska. Then again, I’ll take their comments about “climate change” with a large grain of salt.
Maybe they are pushing for a casino.
If their herds are decreasing maybe they should have a pipeline since that seems to increase herd size. But they should ban Caribou hunting in Northern Canada
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