Hey... Could somone post in response a picture of our illustrious prezzy giving the finger?

Photo courtesy Lynn Konwaiatanonwes Jacobs -- Approximately 40,000 indigenous from around the world took part in the Dec. 3 International March for Climate in Montreal as part of the U.N. Climate Summit held there. Aboriginal peoples, including Canadian First Nations and members of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, stood in solidarity with other indigenous peoples whose ways of life are threatened by global warming.

MONTREAL - American Indians, Alaska Natives and the First Nations of Canada stood in solidarity with indigenous peoples globally during the U.N. conference on global warming, developing the Tiohtia:ke Declaration addressing climate change and indigenous peoples.

In the Arctic, Sheila Watt-Cloutier said global warming is devastating Inuits.

''Inuit are an ancient people. Our way of life is dependent on the natural environment and animals. Climate change is destroying our environment and eroding our culture.

''Climate change is amplified in the Arctic. What is happening to us now will happen soon in the rest of the world.''

Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, submitted a petition to the Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights seeking relief from violations of Inuit human rights by global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

The ICC petition urges the commission to recommend that the United States adopt mandatory limits to its emissions of greenhouse gases and cooperate with the global community of nations to ''prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,'' the objective of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The petition also requests the commission declare that the United States has an obligation to work with the Inuit to develop a plan to help Inuit adapt to unavoidable impacts of climate change, and to take into account the impact of its emission on the Arctic before approving all major government actions.

Watt-Cloutier said, ''This petition is not about money: it is about encouraging the U.S. to join the world community to agree to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions needed to protect the Arctic environment and Inuit culture and, ultimately, the world.''

The U.N. gathering on climate change and global warming attracted 189 world government leaders and 10,000 observers. Indigenous peoples came from Arctic regions, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Norway, Russia, Greenland, India, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Ian Aujare-Zazao, indigenous from the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, said indigenous wisdom must be respected and guide decisions on global warming.

''We are here to present our voices to the parties of the conference on matters that concern our special knowledge and relationship with mother earth, as well as the survival of our communities and of the world.

''It is essential that the contributions of our age-old indigenous knowledge systems to the greater body of climate sciences are respected and given equal recognition.''

Aujare-Zazao said the small island on which he lives is in danger of being submerged by rising sea levels as a result of global warming. Global warming is causing a rise in sea level from thermal expansion as the sea warms up and from the melting of the planet's ice caps.

Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said climate change is not just a scientific term to those who live close to the earth.

''We are here to put a human face to this issue. Climate change is a human rights issue when it concerns the devastating effects of climate change and global warming on indigenous communities in the U.S. as well as throughout the world,'' Goldtooth said.

IEN partnered with the Environmental Justice Climate Change initiative to bring 15 American Indian and Alaska Native people, including youth, to the global meeting.

The global meeting was the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was the first meeting of the parties since the Kyoto Protocol was implemented last February.

World leaders came to Montreal to continue implementation of mechanisms to reduce emission targets, adopt decisions to implement the Kyoto Protocol, ponder ways to meet the targets in the Kyoto treaty and decide what measures to follow when the protocol expires in 2012.

The Tiohtia:ke Declaration, which is a Mohawk word for Montreal, reaffirmed previous positions of indigenous peoples who have participated in U.N. climate conferences since the late 1990s.

IEN said the Tiohtia:ke Declaration provided the heart and voice of not only indigenous peoples, but also all humanity that links human rights, fossil fuels and climate change.

''The burning of oil, gas and coal as fossil fuels is the primary source of human-induced climate change. Indigenous Peoples have experienced systematic and repeated violations by oil, gas, mining and energy industries infringing on our inherent right to protect our traditional lands,'' reads the declaration, which was endorsed by most indigenous groups at the U.N. meeting.