Talk:Climate change and indigenous peoples

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 January 2020 and 30 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Bbakkal, Ikigamwa, Jkwasser, I Have No Authority.

Actors?

Why does this article refer to indigenous people as "actors"? Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 22:43, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I changed instances of "actors" to "peoples" or "persons". Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 00:55, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Adding to info on North America and introduction

Removed “vulnerable population” in opening paragraph

I've added some more specifics to the introduction paragraph and plan to add to the description of governance by adding information on the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCCC) and possibly including some more specifics within the subsection of North America. Obee14 (talk) 19:53, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Ive added some more info about a specific animal that is effected by climate change that in turn effects the Inuit people. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shaymaranke (talk • contribs) 00:35, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Suggestions for the article

I think that the article and the topic are very useful. I like to see arguing how climate change impacts all indigenous people around the world. But I think that the lead section of the article needs to be defined well. Also, it needs to be improvements and adding current data and citations. Besides, I have found some misused words; then, I edited them in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bbakkal (talk • contribs) 23:13, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

Suggestions

The lead section needs more content, including an introduction to the proceeding subsections. I appreciate how the article is organized overall and how the impacts are broken down by region. The beginning paragraph on “impacts” is somewhat confusing, however. The statement is framed around the idea (at least it comes across this way to the reader) that indigenous people will be disproportionally affected by climate change solely due to their identities and belief systems. I would suggest rewriting this paragraph. Furthermore, each "region" section needs more content and should be more focused on and highlight the impacts indigenous people are experiencing in each region. Currently, the information is very generalized. I would suggest adding results from case studies and perhaps including a telecoupled perspective/framework for each region, if possible. The section on the benefits of indigenous participation is a good addition. I might suggest adding a section on indigenous responses/solutions to climate change, or something along those lines. There are not enough references, as there are only nine for the entire article. The bulk of what is included in the “impacts” section, for example, comes from one source. Adding more sources will help you expand your sections and allow more room for specifics and case studies. Jkwasser (talk) 19:19, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

The edits which were added were good in terms of organization, I think that sectioning it into continents was good but like some others on the talk page mentioned, I think that there could be improvement with the references by adding more reliable citations. I also think that going more in-depth within the current categories, could be beneficial, rather than focusing on indigenous groups on each continent in general. Maybe creating subcategories under each continent that focus a little bit more specifically on one region and the groups in that region and their experiences with climate change, would allow for more expanding on certain topics. I would suggest adding a section on the Maoli People of Hawaii under the North America section and then expand on ways which their community has been affected like changes in the places where they can live, changes in food or farming systems and other changes in lifestyle which are connected to climate change. In terms of edits I have made, I plan on going just through and make some clarifying edits wherever needed and fix grammar mistakes if there are there. Overall, the work done on this article is good and the page is improving a lot from what I can see! Ikigamwa (talk) 00:04, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

I finished the introduction feeling a little confused. The description of indigenous peoples’ experiences was a bit too broad. While I think you are justified in saying that “indigenous people have a myriad of experiences,” I think you need to provide some examples so readers can develop a more clear understanding around your claims. Moreover, there are no citations in your opening paragraph. You need to provide citations, even for generalized claims. I also think you should include a definition of western science. Otherwise, readers will all rely on their own, slightly different, and independently-formed definition. I have linked the phrase to the Wikipedia page for “Philosophy of Science” because what used to be a Wikipedia for Western Science redirects to there. Lastly, you have a lot of really long sentences, packed with information, in your first paragraph. You should break these up and play around with your sentence structure. I think this would greatly improve the clarity of your opening paragraph. You begin the impacts section by stating that multiple reports show climate change disproportionately impacts indigenous people but you only provide two citations throughout the entire section. I really think you need more than that. I liked that you broke down the effects of indigneous peoples by region. This allows you to offer more specific and varied information without overwhelming the reader. However, I think you need to make the first sentence of each section about how climate change impacts the indigenous communities. Right now, each section is a jumble of facts, which make it difficult for the reader to decipher the direct impact on indigenous peoples. Again, look at your grammar, use of verb tenses, and sentence structure throughout. Finally, and most importantly, you have to cite more sources. Currently, each section relies almost entirely- if not entirely- on one source. You need at least three sources per section to establish the credibility behind your claims. I think referencing climate activists from indigenous communities in the “Climate Actions of Indigenous Peoples” section is a great idea. These offer really interesting and specific examples. You should consider talking about specific movements that indigenous communities have led or been significant forces to better demonstrate how they have protected the environment and improved water quality. I Have No Authority (talk) 00:27, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Recommended sources

FYI, the IPCC has some excellent report sections on indigenous people that are not summarized anywhere on Wikipedia, as far as I know. It would be really great to summarize them here. If you search these reports for the word "indigenous" you'll find plenty.

• Special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
• Special report on the oceans and cryosphere : https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/

Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 21:22, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

Suggestions for reviewers

Hi all, it's great to see that students are working as a team on this article. I haven't yet had time to review the changes in depth, but I'd just like to flag some areas that I think warrant a double-check:

1) Unfortunately, the Report of the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change." Proceedings of Indigenous People's Global Summit on Climate Change, Alaska, Anchorage. does not qualify as being a reliable source for factual information because the statements made in a summit are not peer-reviewed or subject to editorial scrutiny. Also, that source is from 2009 and things have changed a lot in the past ten years.

2) Please make sure every statement relates to climate change, not to other environmental issues such as the issues around extractive industries in general.

3) Make sure statements of opinion, such as "climate governance would benefit from" are explicitly attributed to a person or group that has expressed that opinion. I.e. name names in the text, not just in the footnotes.

4) When talking about a continent, avoid using a source that examines only one country and using that as being representative of the entire continent. The IPCC sources that I recommend above talk about trends across wide geographical regions - if you use global sources like the IPCC for a Wikipedia article that's global in scope like this one, the writing will be much easier. Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 21:43, 27 February 2020 (UTC)