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Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change: Australia and New Zealand

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Climate Action

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

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Definition

Climate change and its impacts is the focus of this contribution. Climate change itself is as old as the planet, but in the current sense refers to changes in global or regional climate patterns, where increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other gases, produced largely by fossil fuels (hence human induced), are causing major changes to planetary systems. These changes include higher temperatures, species decline or extinctions, drought, flood, and sea level rise. There are two responses to these changes: (i) mitigation which focuses on reducing or eliminating emissions and (ii) adaptation, which focuses on the development of mechanisms to cope with and adapt to climate change. Indigenous peoples, the focus of this contribution, are being impacted by climate change. By Indigenous peoples, we mean, the world’s first peoples, who have lived on their ancestral lands and sea and maintain knowledge about and historical continuity to them, notwithstanding colonization and...

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Correspondence to Melissa Nursey-Bray .

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Nursey-Bray, M., Parsons, M. (2021). Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change: Australia and New Zealand. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P.G., Wall, T. (eds) Climate Action. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71063-1_144-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71063-1_144-1

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