Indigenous communities are already experiencing how climate change disrupts traditional ways of life that have been preserved over thousands of years. For example, traditional permafrost ice cellars are thawing and filling with water as temperatures rise, leaving many without the ability to store whale meat —a mainstay of the coastal Alaskan community local diet— throughout the year.

According to Karla Brollier, founder of the Climate Justice Initiative, Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis — and they are powerful agents to fight it. Building a sustainable future entails harnessing the knowledge, skills and leadership of women in climate action. The Climate Justice Initiative is the only indigenous women-led and focused organisation in the United States that addresses the multifaceted issue of climate change and climate justice in Indigenous peoples, groups and communities.

The Climate Justice Initiative focuses on economic and community-led empowerment, the development of strategies and methodologies for mitigating and adapting while preserving cultural heritage and directing their own cultural, social, environmental and economic future. For Arctic communities and those like it, the environmental changes that are happening are inevitable; the organisation is designed to help those affected by these changes control how they respond to them from this point forward.

Journalist and blogger, he has worked as an editor for several travel, nature and science magazines for the last 20 years.