Climate change is a major problem in contemporary society, evidenced by issues such as global warming that have affected and continue to wreck societal norms around the world. In the first instance, global warming results in thinning polar ice caps. While individuals in areas such as California see this issue as disastrous because they may be submerged in several decades, there is a potential for the Inuit people to lose their way of life. Individuals living in the Arctic find it increasingly difficult to hunt and venture in the ice as their ancestors did several decades ago due to thinner ice and polynyas, permanent open ocean areas (Murray, 2006). Induced climate change is unethical as it unilaterally impedes some individuals, such as the Inuit, from carrying out normal functions. It is important to discern that this issue is detrimental because societies in areas such as the US wish to propagate the consumer culture. The industrial machine affects societies that do not wish to participate in the practice, affecting indigenous sovereignty by imposing a varying form of life than they want.
Furthermore, it is important to consider Canada’s ethical issues related to bitumen production in the tar pits located in Lubicon Land. These societies discern the Boreal forest and natural vegetation as sacred and are devastated by the determination of the oil industry to define the forest as overburden when deforesting the area. The large mines encompass large land tracts, taking up over 200km2 (Massimo, 2021). Tar sands extractions are detrimental to the climate by producing fumes and eliminating the potential for CO2 capture by trees in the Boreal forest (Massimo, 2021). Neo colonialism has curtailed the communities in the area’s way of life as the organizations have damaged the area’s natural filtration system for water and reduced glaciers, endangering people’s lives by subjecting them to toxins.
References
Massimo, M. L. The Climate Crisis: Root Causes and Solutions from an Indigenous Sovereignty Perspective. (2021). Panopto. Web.
Murray, L. (2006). On Thin Ice. Geographical. Web.