ABSTRACT
Inuit leaders continue to emphasize their right to predictable and stable ice regimes, viable coastal communities, land-based livelihoods, and cultural continuity, all of which are threatened by climatic change (Simon 2009; Watt-Cloutier 2009; ICC 2010a; Lynge 2012). Over the last decade, however, Arctic climate research and policy have shifted away from matters of mitigation, responsibility, justice, and rights and toward the identification of strategies and resources that might promote Inuit adaptation and resilience (Ford et al. 2010). As the most recent GN climate strategy makes clear, “Addressing the causes of climate change” remains among “high priorities for Nunavut,” but the current policy priority is to “enabl[e] Nunavummiut [people of Nunavut] to better adapt to current and future changes brought on by climate change”(GN 2011, 4-5). Climate change, it is suggested, is now inevitable, and the strategy is thus focused on identifying climate impacts and promoting adaptation and resilience among Nunavummiut, not on efforts to slow or stop climatic change. Consistent with global shifts toward adaptation and resilience, ICC called in its 2010 Nuuk Declaration for ongoing pursuit of “all available avenues to combat humaninduced climate change” but also for the development of “ways to adapt to the new Arctic reality including insisting on the inclusion of Arctic Inuit communities in the proposed 20 billion dollar international climate change adaptation fund” (ICC 2010b). Although this shift from mitigation to adaption has been highly contentious, and many continue to advocate for immediate globalized action to slow the production and emission of greenhouse gases, adaptation and resilience have effectively displaced mitigation as the leading focus of climate research and policy in the Arctic.
