Southwest Climate Council

1. Southwest Climate Council Bineshi Albert Community Development Director Western Regional Air Partnership August 25, 2005

2. Our Work… • Networking • Communities • Scientific and technical resource people • Businesses and industry • Model Projects • Funding • Resource people • Policy • Identifying existing policies • Community support for new policies • Education • Climate change • Benefits of renewable energy

3. Current work • Survey • Rural communities • Tribes • Land grants • Ranching & farming communities • Analysis • Climate change impacts to land based communities

4. SurveyPreliminary findings • Nearly 2/3 of 22 tribes have a renewable energy system of some sort • Applications are for agricultural use • Funding and financing is a challenge • Interests in utility scale development to create jobs in community

5. Impacts to New Mexico Water Tourism Impacts to land based cultures Tribes Land grants Ranching & farming communities Analysis

6. A World Out of Balance Climate Change and the Impacts on Indigenous Communities Developed by Sammie Ardito & Nikalntha Smith, Climate Justice Corps Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network in collaboration with the Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative (EJCC)

7. Impacts on Land-based Communities

8. Health Effects • Infectious diseases • Asthma and other respiratory illnesses • Heat related deaths

9. Extreme Weather • Severe storms • Floods • Droughts • Heat waves • Hurricanes • Tornadoes

10. Loss of Livelihood • Mass migration as people are no longer able to live in traditional territories • Damage/Loss of traditional foods • Loss of access to sacred sites

11. Diminishing Natural Resources • Droughts are causing beetles to kill trees by sucking the sap out of them. • Groundwater and rivers are drying up due to excessive droughts. • The excessive global use of energy is leading to a rapid decline in the amount of fossil fuels available.

12. Impacts on Indigenous Communities

13. Indigenous Peoples, Pacific Islanders, and other local land-based communities are the first to experience the impacts of climate change. • Along with the rural and urban poor, Indigenous Peoples are also the hardest hit by climate change; yet they contribute the least to the problem.

14. Arctic Region Many Arctic communities have already had their lands and natural resources polluted by oil development. Now they are also facing further destruction from the other end of the oil cycle- carbon emissions.

15. Shorter winters disrupt the plants and animals which Arctic communities depend on for sustenance. • Rising of the water levels due to the melting of the glaciers have forced many island and coastal Arctic communities to abandon their homes and traditional territories . • Warming of the sea water is causing many sea animals, which the Native Alaskan people rely on, to migrate pole ward.

16. Great Lakes and Eastern Woodland Regions Our addiction to fossil fuels, and the “Western” standard of living they support, has put us on a path that could see the northern migration or dying off of the plants, trees, fish and animals. These beings make the region what it is and the way of life of the Anishinaabeg people depend on them.

17. A disruption of the growth and availability of traditional foods such as wild rice, berries and maple syrup. • Dramatic fluctuations in water levels and warmer lake water temperatures which cause fish kills and increase the amount of disease spreading insects such as mosquitoes. • Early and rapid winter snowmelt that leads to flooding of rivers and lakes, causing damage and havoc. • Loss of wetlands which are the source of medicines.

18. Southwest Region The Navajo (Dine’) and Hopi peoples have already been suffering from the desecration and poisoning of their lands by fossil fuel mining corporations. Now they must also deal with the aftermath of global warming which threatens the delicate balance of survival in an already harsh and warm climate.

19. The limited water resources are dependent on the little rain the region gets to replenish them. Climate change has caused drought which leads to the death of plants and animals. • Droughts have forced beetles to suck the tree sap of medicinal plants and foods such as the pinion tree, causing tree and plant death.

20. Great Plains Region The Great Plains extends from Canada to Mexico, and accounts for a third of total US land mass. The Plains are seeing an increase in extreme weather events such as blizzards and droughts due to climate change. This is effecting the plants and animals which the Plains Tribes depend on economically and spiritually.

21. Water resources are becoming scarce and depleted. • The Dakotas have had six national disaster declarations due to drought, blizzards and flooding in the past ten years. • Summer heat and severe weather have caused increased health risks for children and elders.

22. Pacific Coast Region • The Pacific Coastal and Intermountain Area is one of the most diverse regions on the continent, and will therefore face a wide variety of climate change related problems.

23. Warmer, wetter winters will cause increased flooding, landslides, and hydropower complications. • Warmer, dryer summers will lead to increases in the intensity, and extent of fires, and also pest infestation.

24. For More Information: Bineshi Albert Southwest Climate Council 505.249.8647 bineshi@climatecouncil.org