The Canadian Inuit activist nominated alongside Al Gore for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize said she is more committed than ever to drawing the world's attention to climate change in the Arctic.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, appeared on CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
She said she has been working on her objective for more than a decade, acting as an advocate for 155,000 polar Inuit people spread across Alaska, Greenland, Russia and Canada.
"I have been out doing this environmental work for the past 11 years in every forum possible, the United Nations forums, the Arctic council forums and working with the global community to try to get it to understand not only who we are but the negative impacts that globalization is having on our way of life in the Arctic as a hunting culture," she said.
As someone who grew up on the land, Watt-Cloutier said she has witnessed first-hand how climate change is affecting her people's traditional way of life.
That lifestyle, she said, is largely based on cold weather and the presence of ice and snow, and has been put at risk by a warming planet.
With poor ice conditions and lighter snow falls, mobility and transportation is affected, and as a result, danger levels have increased for the Inuit.
"We are having more drownings as a result of the ice not being as safe as it used to be because to read the conditions today are so different from what it used to be, because the ice forms differently because the Arctic sink is warming."
"Even our seasoned hunters are having more accidents as a result of it. The ice forms much later in the fall, it breaks up much earlier in the spring, there are new species of animals we don't even have names for that have arrived in the Arctic. There are much more intense storms and blizzards without warning that come up."
All those factors, combined with the work of activists such as Gore and Watt-Cloutier to draw attention to the issue, means the world, and politicians, are finally paying attention to the issue, she said.
"Well, I think people are finally starting to see what we have been seeing in the Arctic for a number of years," she said.
"The Arctic is the early warning. It is the health barometer for the planet. What is happening on the planet is happening first and fastest in the Arctic. But mind you it is going to start to happen elsewhere in the world."
In another recent victory in her campaign, Watt-Cloutier was granted a hearing in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate the relationship between human rights and global warming.
Watt-Cloutier contends the Inuit's human rights are being threatened by governments' lack of effort to counter climate change. She gathered a petition signed by 62 Inuit hunters, women and elders from Alaska and Canada, contending that their traditional way of life is no longer possible.
After a year of lobbying, the commission has agreed to a hearing.
"On March 1 the hearing is in Washington, D.C. They are giving us an hour -- myself, and my legal team, but they want to broaden the debate. They want to see how this relates to the real legal aspects for all people who are vulnerable and who are negatively impacted by global warming and climate change," she said.
"So it is a good sign. It is a good day for us to start to open this issue with that hearing as a first start."
Watt-Cloutier said she has not yet met Gore, but she offered an invitation for him to visit her in the Canadian Arctic.
