'We need to say, ‘good, it's cold today' because the warmth will come.'

Former Inuit Circumpolar Council president Sheila Watt-Cloutier has a new mission: she plans to establish an advocacy group to push for more action and awareness about climate change in the Arctic.

"I'm already doing it, but I don't have an institutional base," she said during a recent interview in Iqaluit.

Despite approaches from Canada's three major parties to run in the next federal election, Watt-Cloutier , who calls herself "a citizen advocate on Arctic climate change," says she has no plans to run for office to advance her climate change work.

Instead, since the end of her term as ICC president last July, Watt-Cloutier has traveled the world, talking about how climate change isn't just about ice or polar bears, but about communities trying to survive.

Through her message that "the Inuk hunter falling through the thinning ice is connected to the cars that we drive, the disposable world we've become, and the policies that we make," Watt-Cloutier has added human rights into the scientific debate on climate change.

She's continued to lobby on behalf of a petition that she filed with 62 other Inuit to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in December 2005.

With the petition, Inuit became the first indigenous population to make a formal claim regarding climate change's impact from the world's major polluters.

This petition asks the commission to declare that "human-induced climate change infringes upon the environmental, subsistence, and other human rights of Inuit."

The commission, an arms-length body that operates under the Organization of American States, can't issue any binding recommendations to the world's industries or governments, which contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions, but can focus public attention on the issue.

But Watt-Cloutier says filing the petition has changed the debate on climate change to one increasingly focused on human rights.

She spoke to the commission this past March about it, but she hasn't heard about when it will issue a ruling.

"The point has been made. The power is in the attempt and just standing up for our rights has been a win already because the awareness grew, so I think that in that sense it was a win," she said.

In June, Watt-Cloutier traveled to Norway, where she participated in a United Nations Environment Day climate change conference and received the Rachel Carson award, which honours women's contributions to environmental management.

Watt-Cloutier was also in New York last month, where she picked up another award – the UN's Mahbub ul Haq Award for outstanding contribution to human development.

Watt-Cloutier returns to the city this November for the Women Leaders Global Security Summit, where 75 women leaders, including current and former heads of state, will discuss how women can provide more leadership on global security issues.

"Due to your staunch commitment to holding governments accountable for the social, environmental and economic impacts of climate change, and your work towards ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples around the world, we would be honoured to have you participate in this important event," reads Watt-Cloutier's invitation to the event.

In October, Watt-Cloutier learns whether she and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore will receive the 2007 Nobel Peace prize for their work promoting awareness about climate change. The prize will be awarded in December in Oslo, Norway.

To prepare for the busy months ahead, Watt-Cloutier has spent most of the summer at her Tundra Valley home in Iqaluit, where the weather has been unusually cool and the ice still lingers in the bay.

"We have to savour these times and moments. I'm not trying to scare-monger, but it's not going to be this way for a long time," she said. "I think we need to say, ‘good, it's cold today' because the warmth will come."