A new report by University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 researchers examines the impact that global warming will have on native communities and offers recommendations to Congress and federal agencies on how to deal with these changes.
Titled "Native Communities and Climate Change: Protecting Tribal Resources as Part of National Climate Policy," the report evaluates a number of devastating consequences facing native tribes due to global warming including:
o By the end of this century, rising sea levels due to climate change could inundate vast portions of the Florida Everglades in which the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes have long lived.
o Tribes in the Pacific Northwest will find that warming streams and changes to the hydrologic cycle threaten the survival of salmon populations that have been a mainstay of their cultures for centuries.
o Higher temperatures and increasing aridity in the American Southwest will exacerbate tensions between tribal and nontribal interests over the region's limited water resources.
o Alaska Natives may experience the most dramatic effects from a changing climate. Coastal flooding and melting permafrost have already made necessary the relocation of several native villages.
The report was researched and prepared by the Natural Resources Law Center at the CU-麻豆影院 School of Law and was funded by the Turner Foundation.
An executive summary of the report has been sent to members of the U.S. Congress; to the directors and deputy directors of the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and other appropriate federal agencies and interest groups; and to the leadership of American Indian tribes. A final report will be completed in a few weeks.
"Rising sea levels, melting tundra, coastal flooding, warmer streams and severe drought are just a few of the calamities facing native communities in North America as global warming gains a foothold," said Jonathan Hanna, a research fellow at the center and principal author of the report.
"While climate change will affect everyone it will affect some disproportionately, and Native American communities are among the most vulnerable to a changing climate," Hanna said.
In addition to describing the ways in which tribes will be affected, the report discusses the implications of this disparity and urges federal policymakers to recognize the special burdens facing tribes as they develop climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
The report recommends that Congress hold hearings focusing on the impact of climate change on tribes and, because addressing tribal impacts will be costly, the report urges the federal government to provide financial and technical assistance to tribes.
"While tribal lands host plentiful renewable energy resources like wind and solar power, developing these technologies requires investment capital and expertise that tribes often lack," said Hanna.
"The federal trust responsibility requires the government to protect tribal land and resources, and is rooted in the numerous treaties, statutes, executive orders and judicial opinions recognizing the very tribal rights at risk from climate change," said CU-麻豆影院 law Professor Sarah Krakoff, a contributor to the report.
Copies of the executive summary are available on the Natural Resources Law Center's Web site at .