Indigenous elders worried for future generations if no action taken on climate change

With the world focusing on climate change leading up to the COP21 United Nations gathering in Paris at the end of November, some Indigenous elders in Canada say it’s an issue that they’ve been witnessing unfold for decades.

Francois Paulette from Smith Landing First Nation in the Northwest Territories (NWT) has been speaking out about changes to the landscape in his home territory.

“The north is a very sensitive, delicate place with impacts from pollution to the air and water,” said Paulette.

It’s something he said that is happening in his own backyard and becoming more noticeable.

“I live right in the bush, I can see the impacts, I can see the water changing,” said Paulette. “I can see the fish and the birds that are impacted. Even the mosquitoes, there’s hardly any this past year. What are all the birds that feed on the mosquitoes going to feed on?”

Paulette believes pollutants from the Alberta tar sands are being carried by rivers flowing to the north.