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RISING METHANE EMISSIONS ARE CAUSING "SLOW VIOLENCE" ON ARCTIC INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
New study monitoring manmade methane emissions from Arctic permafrost unveils its impacts on Arctic Indigenous rights, health, and well-being
By: Sigrid Vestergaard Frandsen, Director of Environmental Health
August 2022
A new study proves that methane gas emissions from melting permafrost have significant health impacts. The impacts are, in fact, so severe that if methane emissions are reduced by 100%, it could limit atmospheric warming by up to 1.5°C according to the US Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and could additionally prevent an estimated 180.000 deaths, 540.000 emergency room visits from asthma attacks and 11.000 hospitalisations of elderly people globally each year.​
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On top of that, Indigenous communities generally face disproportionate health burdens due to toxic pollutants and environmental breakdowns close to their homes and reservations. Especially, North American Indigenous communities face far bigger environmental health risks compared to the average North American population. Indigenous communities are – because of this – at higher risk of certain medical conditions, such as asthma, heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and cancer. Given that these dangerous emissions come from developed nations, and that the majority of the victims who bear the consequences are in developing, or very poor nations, this type of pollution has been described as a continuation of colonial or economically extractive policies.
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Yet, climate change is not recognized as a form of violence, although we know the causes and deadly effects. The impact of air pollution, like methane gas emissions, is a gradual process, meaning its deadly impact is not always visible and can take decades. Some scientists have thus described this phenomenon as "slow violence" because it is incremental, spread across time and space, and often not seen as a form of outright violence.
Methane bubbles stuck in a frozen lake waiting to be thawed. Photo: John Bakator
What is 'Slow Violence'?​
The concept was coined by Rob Nixon in 2011. He argues that environmental breakdown can occur slowly and invisibly, with a massive disconnect between cause and effect. But the end result is still violence against people and against nature. The destruction of the climate becomes an act of violence against the poor, people of colour, and future generations. 'Slow Violence' is a way to describe how environmental disasters creep up on communities before exploding as disasters. It represents a way to not only speak of disasters that have short timescales, spectacular events, or visible environmental impacts. But longer timescales that play out over generations, and "unspectacular" events like rising asthma and cancer cases, or specific flora and fauna that are slowly going extinct.
Pollution of the atmosphere brings severe consequences, such as climate degradation, crop failure, rising sea levels, and unpredictable weather patterns. Heatwaves take the lives of the most vulnerable, and more powerful storms rip up landscapes. The destruction that climate change causes is often very violent. Thus, if we began to recognize climate change as violence—with an agent as well as a victim—we would understand that when we destroy the environment or pull out of international treaties, we are committing violent acts towards the citizens of the world and, therefore, violating our human rights.
Data collection
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How are methane emissions connected to the Arctic Indigenous communities?
Anthropogenic warming threatens to set free an unknown quantity of the nearly 1.700 billion metric tonnes of frozen carbon from Arctic permafrost to the atmosphere, impacting the climate through heating, also known as permafrost carbon feedback (PCF).
Abrupt thawing can emit substantial amounts of carbon to the atmosphere rapidly. Methane in the troposphere also adds to the level of ozone in the atmosphere.
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Detailed monitoring of methane gas emissions through satellite observations can provide a much better understanding of the Arctic’s future role as a carbon source or a carbon trap, highlighting methane's impact on the Earth’s system and health, as well as the most vulnerable people who are exposed to its severe consequences.​​
Figure 1 of Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland: Temporal change in methane values in the Arctic. TROPOMI spatial distribution maps derived from Sentinel-5P median image collections of each year represented. Sourced from GEE. Cartography done by: Sigrid Vestergaard
As Figure 1 shows, there were stark changes in emissions between 2019 and 2022 in Greenland, Alaska and Canada, where all three regions have experienced an overall rapid increase. Most emission increases occurred in the Canadian territories of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunvut, along with Alaska, where values rose from 1750 parts per billion (ppb) to 1850 ppb (some rural areas of Alaska even rose to 1900 ppb).
Greenland has experienced fewer record increases from 2019 to 2022, but showed a constant 1750-1800 ppb values above the ice sheet, while the coast shows a huge range (1650-1950) depending on the terrain and micro-climate.
Figure 2 of the Nordic countries and Siberia: Temporal change in CHâ‚„values in the Arctic. TROPOMI spatial distribution maps derived from Sentinel-5P median image collections of each year represented. Sourced from GEE. Cartography done by: Sigrid Vestergaard
Figure 2 likewise shows an overall rapid pattern of increase in emissions between 2019 and 2022, due to melting permafrost. Most of the emission increases occurred in northern Siberia where values rose from 1750ppb to 1850 ppb from 2019 to 2022.
Rising methane emissions globally in the last 50 years. Credit: Dlugokencky et al., NOAA.
What's so bad about methane anyway?​
Methane is colourless and odourless, but it is also a potent greenhouse gas that significantly contributes to climate change (80X stronger than CO2). Its key role as an ingredient in the formation of ground-level ozone poses serious risks to human health. While the individual impact of low-level exposure to air pollutants may seem minor, the cumulative effect on the global population is substantial. With significantly rising amounts of methane in the troposphere, we see a significant rise in cancer cases, respiratory diseases, and asthma cases.​​
How are methane emissions and 'Slow violence' connected to human rights?​
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By examining the empirical data, we can gain insights into the intensity of methane emisisons in the different regions of North America, the Nordics, and Siberia, and understand the potential consequences of air pollution in the different Arctic regions. In these regions, methane concentrations have reached alarming levels, significantly higher than pre-industrial levels. This increase is primarily attributed to the thawing of permafrost.
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Inuit communities in North America and Greenland face disproportionate health burdens and environmental health risks where permafrost is prevalent (compared to the average North American population), and are directly affected by methane emissions from permafrost thaw and carbon sinkholes. These prevalent Arctic methane emissions impact the Inuit communities through disruption of traditional livelihoods, damage to infrastructure and housing, increased risks to health and safety, impacts on traditional knowledge and cultural heritage—such as the inability to continue to hunt and forage as Inuit have for millennia—and contribute to further climate change.​
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Due to decades of damaging and destructive environmental policy and degradation of the climate and environment, Indigenous communities have been disproportionately exposed to toxic pollution and other health risks, also called "Environmental genocide." Warmer temperatures can affect the availability and safety of traditional food sources, leading to food insecurity and potential health issues. Indigenous Americans and First Nations face the highest risks of toxic exposure – highlighting the persisting oppression faced by Indigenous communities.
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This heightened exposure to toxins has resulted in severe and permanent health consequences within these communities, intensified by exposure to environmental pollutants, such as a rising number of respiratory disease cases.
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As shown by the new study, these cases of slow violence also occur in other states in non-Arctic U.S. and Canada, but through industry, agriculture, the release of pesticides, and other agricultural by-products, either close to or on Indigenous reservations. These exposures affect not only current community residents and those born into these exposed communities, but also generations to come.
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In the Nordic countries, the average temperature has risen by 2.3º Celsius (4.14º F) since pre-industrial times. If warming continues at this rate, the Nordic Arctic region will resemble that of the southern parts of the Nordic countries. These climate change impacts are undermining the rights to health, well-being, and self-determination of Arctic Indigenous peoples by affecting their ability to "function" and live as they would choose and have done for millennia. For the Sámi peoples in Lapland and Siberia, some of the most significant health impacts stem from the adverse effects on mental health arising from stress and navigating pressures to change their traditional way of life, as well as forced changes to diets, increased risks of disease outbreaks, and mould exposure, health risks to reindeer and Sámi herders through greater threat of accidents from changes to ice and snow stability.
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In light of this, methane emissions in the Arctic can be understood as committing a violent act against the global population. However, current studies and publications have yet to fully explore and establish the direct link between methane emissions and the broader implications for human rights. The breakdown of the climate can be seen as an act of violence perpetrated against marginalised communities, particularly those already facing socioeconomic challenges, people of colour, and future generations. By framing climate change as an issue of slow violence, we shift the focus from short-term, sensational events to the long-term and persistent impacts that erode the rights and well-being of individuals and communities.
Which rights are being violated?
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Life, Liberty, and Security: In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) article 3 states "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." This includes food, proper nutrition, and safe water.
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Children's Rights: In 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) article 27(1) recognizes "the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development."
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Access to a Healthy Environment: In 2022, the United Nations declared access to a healthy environment a 'basic human right.'
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​Adequate Standard of Living: The UDHR article 25(1) was written, declaring "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care..."
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Future Generations: In 1997, the Declaration on Future Generations states, in short, that people alive today have a moral duty to protect the planet, human dignity, essential resources, and safeguard peace so future generations can live safely, freely, and with their rights intact.
Citations
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Sigrid K. Vestergaard Frandsen (2023). Secrets of the Arctic: Monitoring Methane Gas Emissions' Effects on Human Rights (UCD).​
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Dlugokencky, E. J., L. P. Steele, P. M. Lang, and K. A. Masarie (1994), The growth rate and distribution of atmospheric methane, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 17,021– 17,043, doi:10.1029/94JD01245.​​
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Hoover, E. Cook, K., Plain, R. (2012). Indigenous Peoples of North America: Environmental Exposures and Reproductive Justice, Environmental Health Perspectives, National Library of Medicine, vol. 120, no. 12, pp. 1645-1649.
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Nixon, R. (2011). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, Harvard University Press.
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Miner, K. et al., (2022). Permafrost Carbon Emissions in a Changing Arctic, Nature Reviews, Earth & Environment 3, pp. 55-67.
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Williams, J. (July, 2019). Climate Change is Slow Violence, The Earthbound Report