Call For Papers
Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples
2008 Annual Meeting, Association of American Geographers
15-19 April 2008
Boston, Massachusetts
For further information, please go to:
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm
or contact:
Doug Herman
E-mail: hermand [at] si.edu
The Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group (IPSG) of the Association of
American Geographers (AAG) invites papers for the session, "Climate
Change and Indigenous Peoples," to be convened at the 2008 AAG Annual
Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
Session 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.
Interested participants should contact:
Doug Herman, IPSG Secretary
E-mail: hermand [at] si.edu