Finding Wedding Inspirations & Revealing Trends: Diversity & sustainability

In Northern Canada, the Climate Action Youth Ambassador Program joined forces with the Yukon Indigenous Community Climate Change Champion (YIC4) training event held in Whitehorse, November 27–30th, 2017. YIC4 welcomed 25 Indigenous youth from across the Yukon as well as four guest youth from NWT and Nunatsiavut. The training, hosted by the Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research, focused on building a strong foundation of Indigenous and scientific knowledge about the causes and effects of and adaptation strategies for climate change. 

Until a few years ago, farming in southern Iraq was “as lucrative as oil”, Qasim Abdul Wahad remembers, and his one-hectare farm plot in the governate of Basra produced enough to feed his family of eight. Now dust kicks up under his feet as he walks through his land, after worsening extreme heat and drought linked to climate change killed 90% of his winter crops, including all of his okra and eggplant.  “Only a few years ago I would be able to sit here and relax. It was very green and beautiful. When I look at it now, I feel like a member of my family is gone,” the 50-year-old said. Abdul Wahad, who has spent his life farming in the village of Abu Al-Khaseeb – the names means “father of the fertile” – thinks he will soon have to abandon his land, to try to seek more fertile ground elsewhere.