Page 31 - GIC Manifesto.m

For millennia, First Nations’ people have accepted the responsibility for stewardship of the
Earth, developing environmental practices and principles as ceremonial lifeways evolved that
fostered a perceptional reality in which interrelation, reciprocity, and balance became – and
remains – fundamental. That philosophy became a universal tenet of Indigenous life. Honoring
that ethic, GIC will promote a conscientious and proactive stance on
“Climate change’s impacts threaten Kānaka maoli cultural
climate change, in contrast to the Trump Administration which has survival. Ma ka hana ka ‘ike: the learning or knowing is in
abdicated its obligations on the climate crisis. GIC supports the Paris the doing.” D. Kapua‘ala Sproat.
Climate Accord. Several GIC founder members have been in the vanguard
of tribal renewable and green energy projects. We perceive climate issues
in the context of not only environmental justice imperatives, but tribal
economic and restorative justice necessities, and nation-state security
challenges.
GIC rejects entirely the climate change positions (or lack thereof) espoused
by the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, set
in motion by former EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt. As recently as
February 2018, Pruitt postulated that climate change could benefit humans.
“Is it an existential threat? Is it something that is unsustainable, or what
kind of effect or harm is this going to have? I mean, we know that humans
have most flourished during times of what? Warming trends. I think
there’s assumptions made that because the climate is warming, that that
necessarily is a bad thing,” said Pruitt, articulating the US government’s
posture on climate change, a stance that in the face of overwhelming
scientific evidence and consensus has all the credibility of a Flat-
Earther’s chatroom. Nobody is flourishing in Sub-Saharan Africa from
dramatic warming and ever-advancing desert: widespread hunger and
famine, refugee emergencies, and inevitable over population of areas
caused by migration and removal, are among the fissures that will
undermine states and offer opportunities to violent extremists.

ATE CHANGE