69,3050Session description:
Climate change and the associated shifting patterns of weather and plant and animal life have enormous impact on Indigenous peoples. While this has been starkly documented for the far North, study on the impacts of climate change on mid-latitude and tropical Indigenous peoples is lagging.

Since the Native Peoples/Native Homelands meeting of 1998, a few conferences in the United States have drawn attention to Climate Change and Tribal Lands, with attention particularly focused on alternative energy programs. That the most recent Tribal College Forum focused specifically on Climate Change signaled the degree to which this issue is pressing on educators as well as tribal leaders and policy makers to address this issue.
 
The publication "Climate Change and Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations" has called for action and involvement at the local, national, and international levels. But the issues surrounding climate change and Indigenous peoples vary. Across the Western Hemisphere, for example, Indigenous peoples north of Mexico are largely concentrated onto reserves and are contending with reducing fossil fuel consumption. Indigenous peoples of the South, however, are more incorporated into national populations and are facing issues of fossil fuel extraction and production. In both areas, issues of water availability, agriculture, shifting plant populations, and changes in ecological cycles from climate change will have significant impacts on Indigenous populations. In both areas, the problem is one of environmental justice, but in Latin America it intersects more with issues of Human Rights.
 
This session or series of sessions invites scholars working on climate change with Indigenous peoples to present papers on their work. Papers on any aspect of this topic will be welcome, as organizers look to see the range of scholarship being done in this important area.
 
For further information, please visit this site.
 
Call For Papers
Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples
2008 Annual Meeting, Association of American Geographers
15-19 April 2008
Boston, Massachusetts

Interested participants should contact:
Doug Herman, IPSG Secretary