Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Monday, July 9, 2007

IQALUIT - Sheila Watt-Cloutier is back in town after being feted with the United Nations’ highest award of honour for her advocacy work on climate change and its effect on the world’s polar people.

On June 20, Watt-Cloutier received the Mahbub ul Haq Award for Excellence in Human Development from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The award is given to an individual who has advanced the cause of human development. Watt-Cloutier was chosen from three finalists.

"Ms.Watt-Cloutier’s life work is what human development is all about: helping people live healthier lives so they can realize their full potential," Kevin Watkins, a director with the UNDP said on the organization’s website.

"For the UNDP to give me this kind of recognition and award is really a good sign globally because it’s of the highest level," Watt-Cloutier said.

Deflecting attention away from her achievements and onto the cause she champions, Watt-Cloutier said that the honour helps to propel the issue of climate change forward.

"It means that people are getting it... the world is getting it and that is very hopeful," she said.

Watt-Cloutier has been in the global spotlight for the last 12 years, as elected chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and previously as the Canadian president of the council.

In her work, Watt-Cloutier endeavours to put a human face on climate change. "The Inuk hunter falling through the thinning ice is connected to the cars that we drive, the disposable world we’ve become, and the policies that we make," she said in her acceptance speech.

The effects of a warming planet have not been so visible in Iqaluit this spring, but Watt-Cloutier warns against people thinking it isn’t happening. The ice was slow to freeze in Pangirtung before Christmas and hunters told Watt-Cloutier of baby seals falling out of their dens as the ice was so thin.

"The situation is, unfortunately, going to get more alarming because the trend is there, the larger patterns are definitely there," she said.

While it is the peoples of the Arctic that bear the brunt of global warming due to activity taking place thousands of miles away, Watt-Cloutier said there are still actions that Northerners can take to reduce their contribution to the trend. Being aware of packaging, especially on food and household items is one step, Watt-Cloutier said.

Using energy efficient light bulbs and buying fuel-efficient vehicles are two other steps that can be taken. In fact, Watt-Cloutier said she is currently looking into buying a hybrid car or truck.

Individuals should also engage in politics and decide which leaders are going to work on climate change issues in an authentic and committed way, she said.

"Even as a citizen advocate on these issues, we all have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren," she said.

Watt-Cloutier said persistent lobbying can produce results.

"Frustration isn’t something that usually paralyzes me, it really mobilizes me," Watt-Cloutier said.

Watt-Cloutier said her trip to New York was the last that she will take for some time, as she begins a six-month sabbatical to recoup and work on the book she is writing.

"You need still time, you need down time, you need quiet to be able to really write effectively... It’s really going to flow once I give myself that time," she said.