Is Global Warming Real? Just Ask the Inuit

Is global warming real? Many skeptics are beginning to believe the answer is yes due to the wealth of scientific data pointing toward a global warming trend. Still, some believe global warming has nothing to do with human activity but rather is caused by natural events.

Regardless of whether global warming is caused by human activity or natural events (or perhaps a combination of both), one group is seeing the effects of warming firsthand.

In the northern latitudes of Alaska and Canada, the indigenous Inuit are seeing their lifestyle so dramatically affected by the consequences of global warming that they're afraid their entire culture will go extinct by 2070. In these arctic regions, the permafrost (perennially frozen ground) is melting at a rapid rate, thus damaging their homes. They are also seeing key infrastructure damaged as well, including roads, airport runways, bridges, and harbors.

But that's not all. Because agriculture in such a chilly region simply isn't possible, the Inuit are hunters. They hunt for fish, marine mammals, and land animals not simply for food, but also for energy, clothing, and other necessities to carry on their daily lives.

Like bison to the Native Americans of the great plains, the Inuit truly depend on large supplies of animal life to sustain their society. Today, the Inuit have seen their food sources declining due to melting ice.

So dire is the situation becoming that in 2003, the Inuit launched a human rights campaign against the United States claiming that America's failure to reign in dangerous greenhouse gas emissions has resulted in their entire way of life slowly but surely being denuded.

The difference of opinion could not be any more stark. Ask the Inuit if global warming is real, and they'd likely look at you with a puzzled stare as if to say, "Of course it's real, it's wrecking our lives! We see it twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We can't escape from it. It is very much real, and it cannot be denied."

But ask a Republican Congressman from an oil-producing state whether global warming is real, and they'll more than likely tell you it's hogwash. And no wonder, for they are simply kowtowing to energy company lobbyists who make it their job to force misinformation, disinformation, and heresay regarding global warming onto their voter base.

"The truth is out there," opined the 1990s FOX television series, The X-Files. The truth about climate change is out there also, so long as we are willing to look beyond ourselves and see how global warming is affecting other cultures around the world.