Project Submission | Project Submission | University of Washington

The Effects of Climate Change on Native Populations

By Tiger Dorriz

When choosing my project topic, I considered a few. This included topics along the lines of climate change as it relates to time with the Anthropocene, the ideas of a 3rd Industrial Revolution, and the effects of climate change on people’s everyday lives. I found that impact & effect was much easier to quantify and understand, so I chose that scope. In class, some of the most memorable readings had to do with the adverse effects of climate change on natives, & thus I went down this route for my final project. While reading, I just remember the feeling of how unfair it was to the people affected. Natives who had already been long term losers of colonization were now being hurt again, this time by manmade climate change for-profit. It wasn’t until I did further research that I realized just how massive this effect was. The adverse impacts of climate change have disproportionately affected indigenous communities, exacerbating historical injustices. In acknowledgment of the role played by governments in contributing to climate change, reparations are an avenue in which justice can be achieved.

One of the first places I hit on in my presentation was the Chemical City in Sarnia, Ontario. The first example of climate injustice comes from the article a lot of us read regarding the First Nations people in Sarnia, Ontario. Important context here is that centuries ago, Native populations were pushed out of their lands in Ontario due to colonial interests of harvesting furs. The modern day Native lands are nowhere near the sizes that they once were, a travesty in itself. The present day issue here is that this indigenous community is located nearby Canada’s Chemical Valley, which is an area with a large number of petrochemical plants & refineries. These industries release a lot of pollutants into the air, water, & soil of the nearby community. This has led to a disproportionate number of health problems in the local population & a lower life expectancy. This is especially unfair to the indigenous people because they hardly benefit from working at the nearby industries, they just suffer the consequences of its output. This is just the first example of how for-profit interests have hurt natives due to its adverse effects on the surrounding environment.

Sticking in Canada, the next piece I hit on in my presentation was an artwork located in Ontario as well. This photo shows a giant wooden megaphone next to its creator, Rebecca Belmore. Belmore is a indigenous artist who created this megaphone to show the effects that climate change has had on her native land. This project allows for a speakers’ voice to echo up to nine times as they address their native land. Important context to note here is that this megaphone is especially symbolic, due to the material that it’s made out of. The megaphone’s wood is from an ash tree, which is historically important to indigenous people. This tree is native to eastern Canada & much of the northeastern USA, but its prevalence has been heavily affected by climate change. Ash trees “once grew at densities of 17-18 trees per hectare throughout NCR parks. Now, densities are no more than 5 trees per hectare(Ash).” This smaller sample size can be extrapolated to the entire region, to reveal that ash tree populations have dropped by as much as 80% in some areas. This species of tree is just one example of how climate change is killing off our biodiversity. Many may just brush off this example as being just a tree, but the overall theme of flora & fauna dying off is undeniable. It’s just that in this case, it specifically affects a species held very highly by natives.

Sticking in Canada, I chose this historical photo that showed the process of oil drilling on native lands in Southern Ontario. This is closely linked to the context of the strife of the Aamjiwnaang people in Sarnia, and just one example of the types of industries that their lands were used for. Of course, they weren’t able to benefit financially as the settlers did. Starting in the mid 19th century, oil drilling became a prominent industry in the region, extracting resources from the land for financial gain. It was a similar situation in which the indigenous were used for financial gains while the native people themselves weren’t able to reap the benefits. And once the oil had run dry & the resources had been fully depleted, the nearby community experienced declines in population. Settlers went back home & drained the local economy from what little benefit they had provided during the boom days. This is ironically similar to the situation nowadays with the refineries, there’s tons of parallels. The main difference is just the resource nowadays, before it was oil and now it’s chemicals. The aftermath of this event though? Not only was the resource drained & the local economy left in ruins, but the lands were often left barren with all the drilling in the ground that had occurred.

Going across the globe, my final piece of artwork focuses on this fabric that is meant to represent the identity of aboriginals in Australia. Despite being as far away from Canada & the USA as you can get, Aboriginals here were often subjected to similar treatment as the Natives back in North America. Land was taken, cultural practices were ignored, & many people were displaced. And even afterwards, when the government acknowledged their wrongs & promised to work towards justice for past wrongdoings, it’s still not good enough. Through the practice of settlement, laws, & regulations of Aboriginal land, the Australian government inadvertently “made the native lands more fragile & prone to bushfires(The).” This climate change has not only adversely affected natives, but also the local flora & fauna. In the clock itself, you can see a young kangaroo front & center. This kangaroo is being depicted as an animal that was trapped & killed in a barbed wire fence running away from a fire. An effect of the government’s practices is that native lands are more prone to these fires, which not just hurt the Natives but also the animals that live around them. This represents the increased numbers of fire risk on native land & has a real emotional effect by showing how it affects innocent animals. It’s also important to note that the outside of the cloak is made up of possum skin, which is an animal that has gone endangered in the country due to climate change.

In conclusion, these examples & artworks all show how governments have used native lands for their benefit, damaging them in the process. In these examples, all of the native tribes involved have already received some type of reparation or concession. Whether it was the establishment of a reservation or financial compensation, all have received something for their past troubles. It makes a lot of sense why some critics would therefore be against further compensations. To this effect, I saw that past reparations were designed to compensate for the loss of land & life encountered centuries ago. When agreed upon, there wasn’t as much knowledge about climate change & just how much these practices have adversely affected native lands going forwards. These new reparations would simply serve as a form of justice to address these issues going on. Whether in Canada, the USA, or Australia, it’s only fair that a portion of that previous & current financial gain be allocated to natives in the current day to make up for it.