MOTHER NATURE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES: Global Impacts on the Northern Arctic Inuit of Nunavut, Canada

Reinforced by scientific studies from the Northern Contaminants Program, scholarly research, and contributions from the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), the Canadian Parliamentary 2000 Report on PESTICIDES set the stage for radical legislative changes concerning pesticide use, weather transport, and harmful effects. This paper specifically addresses issues for the indigenous Inuits of Nunavut, Canada who continue to suffer profound negative impacts on their health, safety, traditional lifeways, and contemporary adaptations (developed more recently to survive). Because pesticide use to groom lawns actually outpaces commercial agricultural use, it is vital for “outsiders” to recognize how contaminants hitchhike on global currents for thousands of miles before other biological processes maximize concentrations within a progressively colder ecosystem—a volatile combination of humans and Mother Nature with dire consequences for these First Peoples who have thrived for millennia in the nether regions of the Arctic Tundra.