Humans of COP24: return from Krakow

On the bus ride home from Krakow, Monica made space for me to sit with her. She is attending the COP as an observer, as part of an NGO: the Inuit Circumpolar Council. As we got on the road, it was already dark though it was only 4 pm. “When does it get dark for you?” I asked Monica, who lives in Nunavut. “It’s not as bad as here!” she exclaimed, taking a photo. I followed suit.

Nunavut. Monica’s community is the largest in the territory with 7000 people. Other communities are smaller: 700 or 2000 or 3000 people. There are no roads between communities: the travel is all by airplane. I was surprised to learn that we live in the same time zone, however, because I always think of northern Canada as slanting westerly. Clearly not.

The Inuit Circumpolar Council includes members from Canada, the USA, Greenland, and Russia. Each country provides support for its own section of the council: the Canadian staff is largest, followed by the US, then Greenland, then Russia. They speak English (with the exception of the Russians, who presumably work with translators). They could speak their own language(s) as well—and Monica switched seamlessly from English with me to Inuit on a phone call—but the dialects are so different that comprehension would be slow and they would be less effective than they can be using English as a common language.

The Council works on many issues, climate change among them. Every community Monica represents needs health care and education and recreation centers and funding is scarce, so communities have to prioritize among their needs.

Because it was dark, and Monica was tired, having flown in from Anchorage via Seattle, I spared her my normal request for a photo and a card. Here instead is a link to the Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Resource Development Principles in Inuit Nunaat:

declaration_on_resource_development_a3_final