In 2009 one of world’s leading climatologists, James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Science at Columbia University in New York City, published Storms of Our Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. In the same year, Daniel Wildcat (Yuchi member of Muscogee Nation) of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas and convener of the American Indian Alaskan Native Climate Change Working Group, published Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge. These two books are important reading (think of upcoming birthdays and other gift-giving holiday opportunities) to help enlighten and transform each of us. These books can expand our sharing circles echoing and connecting us all in a call to action on Climate Change, the most urgent environmental/social/economic issue of our time (of all time?). Here are some memorable quotes from prominent Climate Change messengers Hansen and Wildcat:
- “Ten thousand years of good weather is over.” –James Hansen (blog posting 5 May 2009 at: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20090505_TempleOfDoom.pdf)
- “Instead governments are retreating to feckless ‘cap-and-trade’, a minor tweak to business as usual.” –James Hansen (blog posting 5 May 2009)
- “Cap-and-trade is the temple of doom.” –James Hansen (blog posting 5 May 2009)
- “What the world needs today is a good dose of Indigenous realism.” –Daniel Wildcat (Red Alert! 2009)
- “We are going to have to have major changes in human cultures, especially the political and economic climates we live in. We must reconnect our human lifeways or cultures to the places, landscapes and seascapes, where we live. I think Indigenous Peoples can offer good insights on how to develop societies that promote and develop systems of life-enhancement. The good news is the political and economic climates are changing ever so slightly in favor of allowing experiments in Indigenous ingenuity – ‘indigenuity’.” –Daniel Wildcat (Present Magazine, 20 April 2010 at: http://presentmagazine.com/full_content.php?article_id=3011&full=yes&pbr=1)
On the Climate Change frontline in their backyards, Sheila Watt-Cloutier (Inuit) and Patricia A.L. Cochran (Inupiaq) are indigenous leaders from their artic homelands of melting ice in Canada and Alaska respectively. They are strong and active messengers voicing that climate change is occurring rapidly with profound impacts on lifeways and environment:
- “The Arctic is the health barometer of the world and we, the Inuit, are the mercury of that barometer. As goes the Arctic, so goes the world.” –Watt-Cloutier (U. Winnipeg Honorary Doctorate of Laws convocation, 4 June 2006 at: http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/hd-watt-cloutier)
- “I do nothing more than remind the world that the Arctic is not a barren land devoid of life but a rich and majestic land that has supported our resilient culture for millennia. Even though small in number and living far from the corridors of power, it appears that the wisdom of the land strikes a universal chord on a planet where many are searching for sustainability.”–Watt-Cloutier (U. Winnipeg Honorary Doctorate of Laws convocation, 4 June 2006)
- “Climate change is not just a theory to us in the Arctic; it is a stark and dangerous reality.” –Cochran (Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council presentation, International Expert Group Meeting on Indigenous Peoples & Climate Change, Darwin, Australia, 2-4 April 2008 at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fesa%2Fsocdev%2Funpfii%2Fdocuments%2FEGM_cs08_Cochran.doc&rct=j&q=Patricia%20A.L.%20Cochran%20quotes&ei=eSaTTuW7NsnMsQL47LWGAQ&usg=AFQjCNHpHly6VtG_vY9acoM7i9laTh9cJw)
- “Climate change is not about scoring political points. It is about families, parents, children, and the lives we lead in our communities throughout the world. We need many strong voices in order to be heard.” –Cochran (Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council presentation, International Expert Group Meeting on Indigenous Peoples & Climate Change, Darwin, Australia, 2-4 April 2008)
In 1988 as James Hansen was testifying as a climate science expert (and I as a renewable energy specialist) before U.S. Congressional committees on global climate change, Edward Benton-Banai (1988) wrote The Mishomis Book – The Voice of the Ojibway. The following description of Anishinaabe Ojibwe prophesy, which preceded 1492 by many generations, is excerpted from Benton-Banai’s book:
“In the time of the Seventh Fire New People will emerge. They will retrace their steps to find what was left by the trail. Their steps will take them to the Elders who they will ask to guide them on their journey. But many of the Elders will have fallen asleep. They will awaken to this new time with nothing to offer. Some of the Elders will be silent because no one will ask anything of them. The New People will have to be careful in how they approach the Elders. The task of the New People will not be easy.
“If the New People will remain strong in their quest the Water Drum of the Midewiwin Lodge will again sound its voice. There will be a rebirth of the Anishinabe Nation and a rekindling of old flames. The Sacred Fire will again be lit.
“It is this time that the light skinned race will be given a choice between two roads. If they choose the right road, then the Seventh Fire will light the Eighth and final Fire, an eternal fire of peace, love brotherhood and sisterhood. If the light skinned race makes the wrong choice of the roads, then the destruction which they brought with them in coming to this country will come back at them and cause much suffering and death to all the Earth’s people.”
As I have highlighted in previous Carat Juice postings, according to current Ojibwe Elders such as Joe Rose (see YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65V02PpsEEg), the Eighth Fire is already lit. This is the time when peoples of all races choose which path to take. Those who come together, the New People (Oskibimadizeeg) will come to the aid of Mother Earth and all her relatives. Let us choose the Red Path towards an Evergreen Society. Let us come together now.
Onward together,
Prof. Victor D. Phillips, GEM Director
GEM Education Center Blog 