Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Issues

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, the industrialized worldʼs encroachment on native lands has brought disastrous environmental harm to indigenous peoples. More than 170 native peoples around the world are facing life-and-death struggles to maintain environments threatened by oil spills, explosions, toxic chemicals, global warming and other pollutants. This unique resource surveys those indigenous peoples and the environmental hazards that threaten their existence, providing a wealth of information not readily available elsewhere. Arranged geographically, each entry focuses on the peoples of a particular country and the environmental issues they face, from the global warming and toxic chemicals threatening the Arctic Inuits, to the logging that is devastating indigenous habitats in Borneo. Also includes information on alcoholism, animals, toxins and breast feeding, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), George W. Bush, cancer, China, climate change, colonization, cyanide, dams, Declaration of the First International Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change, deforestation, disease introduction, Native American concept of ecology, economics, ExxonMobil, fishing, fur trade, genocide, gold mining, health problems, human rights violations, hunting, hydroelectric power, infants and children, International Monetary Fund, Japan, Judeo-Christian worldview, land tenure, lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, mining, Movement for the Survival of The Ogoni (MOSOP), Native Americans, natural gas exploitation, nuclear testing, nuclear waste dumps, oil exploitation, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pollution, protests, rainforests, Rio Tinto, Russia, Shell Oil, submarine tailings disposal (STD), suicide, tourism, United States, water pollution, World Bank, etc. Other peoples covered include: Kolla, Mapuche, Wichis, Australian Aborigines, Mopan, Kekchi, Khwe (Kalahari Bushmen), Apurina, Paumari, Deni, Juma, Guarani, Kaiowa, Kaiapo, Panara, Pataxo, Pemon, Yanomami, Pygmies, Crees, Pimicikamak Cree, Lubicon Cree, Dene, Kanesatake Mohawks, Tlingit, Innu, Ouje-Bougoumou Cree, Dogrib, Ojibway, Pehuenche, Mapuche, Uʼwa, Embera, Tabaco, Achuar, Shuar, Waorani, Tigre, Beni Amer, Hidareb, Kunama, Namosi, Serua, Nadroga, Rewa, Te Ao Maohi Moorea, Chamorro, Achi Maya, Champerico, Isseneru, Akawaio, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Penan, Batak, Kurds, Moi, Kwale, Maasai, Ogiek, Maya, Huichole, Maori, Mayagna (Sumo), Ngobe-Bugle, Urarina (Kacha), Aguaruna, Marinduque Islanders, Lumad, Evenk, Khanty, Nenet, Wanniyala-Aetto, Saramaka Maroons, Lahu, Hmong, Karen, Penobscot, Yaqui, Point Hope Eskimos, Gwichʼin, Hopi, Navajo, Quechan, Seminole, Coeur dʼAlene, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Northern Cheyenne, Western Shoshone, Zuni, Oklahoma Cherokee, Cheyenne River Sioux, Oglala Lakota, Goshute, Blackfeet, Makah, Yakama, Wisconsin Chippewa, Pemon, Warao, Jahm, etc.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.