Different Peoples, Similar Environments: Perspectives and Sustainability

Same environment, different choices

Two groups of people can live in the same kind of environment, like a hot desert, and respond in completely different ways. One way might last for centuries. Another might use up a resource in a few decades. How do we judge which responses are sustainable?

In this lesson you'll compare responses and the perspectives of different groups.

Comparison 1: Hot deserts

Sahara Desert (Africa): Some families among the Tuareg and other peoples of the Sahara practise nomadic pastoralism. They move with camels, goats and sheep to find water and grazing, so no single place is overused. Other communities live at oases, growing date palms and other crops with groundwater.

Mojave Desert (United States): Las Vegas is a big city in the desert. Most of its water comes from the Colorado River, stored in Lake Mead behind the Hoover Dam. The city has green parks, hotels with fountains, and many homes. During long droughts, Lake Mead's water level has dropped a lot, and the city has paid people to replace lawns with desert plants and has strict water rules.

Assessing sustainability: Nomadic herding uses resources lightly and moves before they run out, but it is under pressure from drought, borders and changes in land use. Las Vegas supports millions of people, but it depends on a river shared with other states and Mexico, and on rain and snow far away. Its water saving has helped, but its future depends on how the river is shared.

Comparison 2: Low-lying coasts

The Netherlands: about a quarter of the land is below sea level. After a deadly storm flood in 1953, the country built the Delta Works, a huge system of dams, dikes and storm barriers. It is now also giving some rivers more room to flood safely.

Bangladesh: much of the country is a low, flat delta. Many families live with seasonal floods: they raise homes on earth mounds, use floating gardens (rafts of plants that rise with the water), and the country has built cyclone shelters and early-warning systems that have helped save many lives.

Assessing sustainability: the Netherlands' approach is very protective but very expensive and must keep growing as seas rise. Bangladesh's approach works with the water and costs less, but rising seas and stronger storms are making life harder for many families.

Comparison 3: The Arctic

Inuit have lived in the Arctic for thousands of years and live there today in communities across Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland in Canada. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (Inuit knowledge) includes deep understanding of sea ice, weather, animals and the land. Many families hunt and share country food such as seal, caribou and Arctic char, alongside store-bought food. Modern homes are often built on piles (posts) so their heat doesn't thaw the permafrost underneath.

Sámi in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia are also Indigenous to a cold northern environment. Some Sámi families herd reindeer, moving with the herds between seasonal pastures.

Assessing sustainability: both ways of life are built on knowing the land well and taking only what is needed, which has helped them last a long time. Both now face challenges from climate change, which is making sea ice and snow less predictable, and from mines, roads and other development on their lands.

Different perspectives: the James Bay hydroelectric project

In the 1970s, the Quebec government began a huge hydroelectric project on rivers flowing into James Bay. These are the lands of the Cree (Eeyou) and Inuit. Dams and reservoirs would flood large areas of land used for hunting, trapping and fishing.

The Cree and Inuit went to court to protect their lands. In 1975, they signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement with the Quebec and federal governments. It is often called the first modern treaty in Canada. Later, in 2002, the Cree and Quebec signed another agreement known as the Paix des Braves.

The flooding also had long-term effects that were not fully expected, such as higher levels of mercury in fish from the new reservoirs, which affected a traditional food source.