Like the aforementioned heat, global weather patterns concentrate pollutants in the Arctic too. It was here that, among other things, she became involved in environmental action. Watt-Cloutier worked in education and community organising, eventually running for office as head of the Inuit Circumpolar Council – an NGO that represents the 160,000 Inuit that live across Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Russia. Over the years she saw many changes, as trade increased, local customs eroded, snowmobiles replaced dogs, poverty increased and with it alcoholism, violence and social problems. Then she was relocated by the government for schooling, and lived back and forth between south and north Canada over the following years as she became a mother and pursued a career in education. Her childhood played out in the ‘old Arctic’ of hunting culture, dog sleds and igloos. Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an Inuit activist, environmentalist and grandmother. The consequences are stark, and The Right to be Cold details them in this striking personal account of environmentalism in the North. Because of global weather patterns, heat accumulates at the poles and the climate is changing twice as fast in the Arctic. The Arctic is the front line of climate change.
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