ICTM: How Tribes Are Addressing Climate Change

Indian Country Today Media Network posted a story about eight tribes, two from within Western Washington, that are ahead of the curve when it comes to adapting to climate change.

The Swinomish Tribe and Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe were the two highlighted from the Pacific Northwest.

Since passing a climate change proclamation in 2007, the Swinomish Tribe have implemented an action plan that includes ways to protect the coast, assess community health and deal with wildfire protection.

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe released a report in August that assess the tribe’s vulnerability to climate change. After being directed by tribal council, the natural resources staff developed an advisory committee to determine what the tribe’s vulnerabilities were to climate change and to create an adaptation plan.

From the story:

Much has been made of the need to develop climate-change-adaptation plans, especially in light of increasingly alarming findings about how swiftly the environment that sustains life as we know it is deteriorating, and how the changes compound one another to quicken the pace overall. Studies, and numerous climate models, and the re-analysis of said studies and climate models, all point to humankind as the main driver of these changes. In all these dire pronouncements and warnings there is one bright spot: It may not be too late to turn the tide and pull Mother Earth back from the brink.