Climate change and indigenous peoples: a synthesis of current impacts and experiences

Human Responses and Adaptation in a Changing Climate: A Framework Integrating Biological, Psychological, and Behavioural Aspects

“…Vulnerability stems from colonial intrusion into a traditional lifestyle, rapid modernization, and cultural assimilation policies, which cause a loss of traditional knowledge and limit traditional adaptation strategies [ 78 , 79 ]. All these circumstances may be worsened by climate change affecting lifestyle and health, both physical (altering outdoor activities and diet) and mental (inducing stress, worry, depression, anxiety, trauma, and cognitive biases) [ 74 , 80 ], but also resulting in spiritual loss [ 56 ] caused by the transformation or the disappearance of sacred ritual important sites and the disrupted relationship with the land [ 81 ] that is the source of ancestral linkages [ 82 ], even leading to high rates of substance abuse, violence, and suicide [ 82 , 83 , 84 ].…”

Climate-driven losses to knowledge systems and cultural heritage: A literature review exploring the impacts on Indigenous and local cultures

“…The Karuk people of California have experienced an almost complete elimination of salmonids and acorns, which are two traditional staples that make up 50% of the Karuk diet (Lynn et al, 2013). In coastal Louisiana, tribes are witnessing declines in traditional food resources due to land loss, saltwater intrusion and increased storm activity (Norton-Smith et al, 2016).…”

Law and Political Economy in a Time of Accelerating Crises

“…Critical scholarship on sexual and gender minorities, similarly, has examined the role of legal doctrine in lowering the horizons of queer freedom (Spindelman 2005)-for example, the project of aligning gay and lesbian citizenship with wealth accumulation through marriage and spatial segregation (Harris 2006). Indigenous scholarship and advocacy exposes the historic injustices through which the fundamental subject of international law, the nation-state, emerged (Miller et al 2010), calls for new legal subjects that disrupt conventional relations of ecological-economic extraction (Morris and Ruru 2010), and develops new forms of socialecological-legal governance (Norton- Smith et al 2016). Meanwhile, a sophisticated tradition of critical scholarship has examined the subordinating effects of conventional lawyering itself (White 1988;López 1992) and helped develop alternative visions that center empowerment and autonomy for dispossessed communities, rather than lawyer-driven "reforms" (Spade 2013; see also Akbar, Ashar, and Simonson forthcoming).…”