Manitoba Natives See Sweeping Changes In Weather, Land - Guardian

[hatrack]

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"The 70-year-old First Nation elder and her husband have spent their lives among these creeks and paper birch thickets. Two hundred and fifty miles north of Winnipeg, and accessible only by air, snow road in winter and boat in summer, the reserve has proved a generous home to 1,000 indigenous Canadians. Yet the couple believe the land is dying. Its wildlife is vanishing; its weather freakish; its waters dangerously unpredictable.

The last few years have seen intense storms, fierce gales and scorching summers. Their beloved river runs suddenly high, too risky to canoe; then Lake Winnipeg drops so low that boat motors break on the rocks. "In the past, if we set 12 traps we would probably get 10 rabbits. But we only got two or three this whole winter," Ms Valiquette said, shaking her head. "There was a time when you couldn't step anywhere without treading on frogs, but even they've disappeared. You just can't live off the land."

She is convinced the cause of these devastating changes is simple: global warming. And if she is right, the problems are only beginning. Scientists warn that by 2080, winter temperatures in the central Canadian province of Manitoba will be 5C to 15C higher than at present.

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The effects are already visible at Poplar River. Moose; martens; lynx; all have dwindled or vanished from the region. Wild rice, once abundant, is scarce. The sun scorches berries before they can ripen. When algae blooms spread across Lake Winnipeg in summer, the fish vanish and the empty nets become so thick with the plant that they look like green blankets. "You see how beautiful this land is? That didn't happen by mistake," said Ray Rabliauskas, the reserve's land management coordinator. "Elders like Frances have worked hard to keep it that way, and it should be intact for our children and grandchildren. If the land gets sick and dies, then so will the people."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1214665,00.html

[brokensymmetry]

1. If the land gets sick and dies, then so will the people.

Simple wisdom. Too bad we seem to be having trouble grasping the concept, eh, Hatrack?