ABSTRACT
In May 2005, I attended a conference in Montreal, sponsored by Natural Resources Canada, on the topic of adapting to climate change. During that conference there were several sessions on climate impacts in the Arctic. One of the speakers was an Inuit hunter, John Keogak, from the Western Arctic (see Knotsch, Moquin and Keogak 2005). He gave one of the most compelling testimonies about climate change impacts that I have ever had the privilege to hear. He spoke of changing wind patterns that affected ice flows, of the change to his home and way of life, and his fear that there is no future for his grandchildren. He also challenged us, “the south and the wealthy” to remember the lives of those in Canada’s north. This eloquent gentleman put a much needed human face on the issue of climate change. He reminded me of the voices, human and natural, that are too often marginalized from the world of targets, timetables, science and international negotiation. He challenged my/our Western1
ways of knowing through his expression of traditional environmental knowledge (TEK), counseled us all to remember our connection to the land, and turned my/our sense of geographic space upside down as he spoke from the north to the south and from the local to the global.
