Climate change induced by human consumption of fossil fuels impacts everyone everywhere, and has become the signature environmental issue of our time. Native peoples of North America, with their close philosophical connection to the Earth and subsistence styles of life, are among the first to be significantly affected by a rapidly changing climate. This is most evident in the Arctic, which is warming more quickly than any other region on Earth, where an Inuit world built on ice is melting away. Alaskan Native communities also face climate-induced change, including relocation of entire coastal villages. Elsewhere in North America, Native water resources and food sources have already been damaged by a warming climate.

Introduction : indigenous peoples' advance guard of climate change -- Consulting with Native peoples -- Droughts, deluges, and devastated harvests -- The Navajos' sea of sand dunes -- Fire, drought, bark beetles : and environmental justice -- Devastating ocean harvests -- Sweating in Iquluit -- An ice world melts -- The hunter's life in today's Arctic -- Alaska native villages fall to encroaching seas -- Defusing the climate bomb : Native resistance to tar sands mining.