A long-time political spokesperson for the Inuit, Watt-Cloutier, is actively engaged in climate change initiatives with the aim of persuading states to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and the use of toxins.
The very survival the Inuit is at stake, she says.
"We go out and hunt on the sea to put food on the table," Watt-Cloutier said in a recent interview. "You go to the supermarket."
And if there is one place on the planet where the effects of the "great warming" are immediately felt it is in the Arctic says Watt-Cloutier who as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference represents some 155,000 Inuit in Canada, The USA, Russia and Greenland.
"We on a daily basis observe the minute changes that are occurring in the environment," Watt-Cloutier said. "We are the guardians of the environment, in fact, because we're on the land every day...we're the early warning system for the rest of the world."
Originally from Nunavik in Northern Quebec and educated in Manitoba, she now lives in Iqaluit capital of the new territory of Nunavut.
Her people are witnessing first hand the devastating affects of climate change and its relentless assault on their traditional way of life. "We're already living this reality," Watt-Cloutier, said. "It's not a theory in the future, it's right now in the present."