NASA seeks out Aboriginal people's knowledge on climate change

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is looking to the Native community for opinions and information regarding global climate change.

NASA began consultation with representatives from the American Native community in 1998. The consultation process is part of NASA's involvement in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), a program tasked with looking at the impact of climate change in the United States.

Ann Carlson is project manager of NASA's National Assessment program. NASA is one of several American federal department mandated by congress to continuously assess the state of the country regarding climate change. Each government agency, Carlson explained, is responsible for three or four areas of assessment. One of NASA's areas is Native Peoples, Native Homelands. As part of the assessment process, Carlson said, NASA is involved in ongoing consultation with Native representatives from across the U.S. regarding "climate change, and how it affects their lives."

Carlson indicated this consultation was something that would be an ongoing project within NASA.

The consultation process so far has included a climate change workshop, "Circles of Wisdom: Historical Reminders, Contemporary Issues", co-sponsored by NASA and held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the fall of 1998. As well, NASA sponsored a special double issue of the journal, Native Americas, published by the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The double issue, entitled "Global Warming, Climate Change and Native Lands," featured the articles of 20 Native American writers and scholars on the subject of climate change. The special issue was published in January, and was sent to Native schools, universities, public libraries and media across the U.S., as well as to Congress.

Nancy Maynard is the person at NASA who spearheaded her agency's consultation process with Native Americans. At the time, Maynard was director of application, commercialization and education at NASA's Earth Science Enterprises, but is now at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, heading up a new initiative on environment and human health.

Maynard said she was attending one of the four regional climate change workshops sponsored by NASA, when she heard a couple of reports by Native Americans on Native issues.

"I had not heard that perspective before. . . .I had not interfaced with Native American issues," she said.

Maynard said by listening to the reports, it became clear to her that the Native American perspective on climate change - a holistic view, was the same as NASA's.

"If you make a change in one part, it affects the entire system. That's how we at NASA approach and study the earth system," she explained.

Maynard said she realized the need to include the Native perspective throughout the whole assessment project, looking not just at the scientific aspect, but also at the socio-economic impact of climate change as well.

"The experience of Native Americans and also the impact on Native Americans are very key and very relevant issues in our assessment project," Maynard said.

She explained that not many scientists have had an opportunity to interact with the Native community.

"It seemed to me this was something we really should consider very seriously," Maynard said.

As a result, Maynard asked the two Native people who spoke at the workshop if they could help her put together a workshop designed to look at the impact of climate change on Native lands, identifying issues and looking at solutions. The result was "Circles of Wisdom" workshop in the fall of 1988.

"It was a really interesting workshop. . . we brought up many, many different issues that are extremely relevant to everybody across the country."

Jose Barreiro is editor in chief of Akwe:kon Press, publishers of Native Americas. Barreiro said he was "very pleasantly surprised" when he learned of NASA's intent to consult with Native people on the topic of climate change. He atended the NASA conference, where Elders suggested Akwe:kon Press be used to get information about climate change out to more of the Native community. He said NASA's involvement in the special publication was to provide funding to produce additional copies, without any impact on the content of the publication.

Barreiro indicated the role of the Native Americas publication has always been to try to create a bridge of understanding between the academic and the cultural and traditional, a role it continued through the special NASA sponsored issue. Climate change is a topic his publication will continue to keep tabs on in the future, he said.

NASA will be hosting another climate change workshop involving the Native community in the fall, Carlson said, with work currently going on to try to address the issues that came out of first workshop.

Although not taking place to quite the extent as it is south of the border, Canadian climate change research projects are including some consultation with Native representatives.

The provincial government of Alberta is one of the governments looking at the issue of climate change. The province hosted the Alberta Climate Change Round Table in the spring of 1999. The final report of the round table listed a total of 98 participants in the consultation process. They included among them representatives from business, industry, labor, health organizations, environmental groups, academics, and municipal leaders, as well as those identified only as representatives from the "general public". No representatives from Native groups were included in the listing.

Elaine McCoy was one of the co-chairs of the Alberta Climate Change Round Table. McCoy also chairs the Task Force on Climate Change for the Alberta Economic Development Authority.

Although no individuals from the Aboriginal community participated in the round table, McCoy indicated individuals from First Nations and Metis settlements were invited to take part in the consultation pocess. McCoy indicated Native input would also be sought as work to address climate change issues continues.

"The Aboriginal community has not been overlooked at all," she said.

On a national level, climate change consultation is co-ordinated by the Climate Change Secretariat in Ottawa. The secretariat was set up in 1998 to oversee Canada's climate change program nationally. It includes representation from provincial and federal governments. Through the secretariat, 16 working groups were formed to examine climate change issues in various areas, including transportation, electricity, agriculture, forestry, and industry. Membership in the working groups is made up of 450 experts, including representatives from government, industry, academics, environmental groups, scientists and non-governmental organizations. As part of their work, each working group was responsible for consulting with Canadians who have an interest in the sector it was examining.

Chris Walters is senior communications advisor with the Climate Change Secretariat. According to Walters, most of the working groups wrapped up their work last fall, and many have already completed their final reports.

Although Walters indicated the areas examined by the groups did not include one to deal specifically with Native issues and concerns, as was the case in the U.S., some consultation with representatives of the Native community was part of the process. Although he was unsure of the extent of this consultation, he did know that the group looking at the forestry sector did include a representative from the National Aboriginal Forestry Association.