After a wildfire tore through the forest around Kakisa, N.W.T., in 2014, Lloyd Chicot began noticing changes in the lake: the pickerel grew fatter, and the pelicans moved in. Chicot, the chief of Ka'a'gee Tu First Nation, attributes the change partly to climate change and partly to runoff from the fire, which brought nutrients and debris into the lake. "Right after the fire, there was a lot of burnt driftwood and that kind of stuff," he recalled.

On a sunny Tuesday evening in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., Derek and Julia Erasmus cook up a dinner of waffles and sausages as their two young daughters play outside.  Watching them, you wouldn't know just how difficult the past two years have been. They were one of 10 families who lost their house when the community flooded in 2021. "It's kind of just a huge life-changing event," Derek said. "We kind of thought we were going to retire in that house some day … then those plans were all gone after that."

Jon Widney can't help but smile as he talks about the way students studying to be water treatment operators are being taught today. "It would have been an easier learning process, that's for sure," said Widney. Widney is an instructor in the water and wastewater operator program at Yukon University in Whitehorse. That process he's referring to is a new learning tool the university is developing in partnership with the Calgary NGO Water Movement.

The Délįnę Got'įnę government and its federal and territorial counterparts have agreed on further protection for Great Bear Lake or TsáTué, a UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve. The new agreement will enhance conservation of the area and will lead to long-term funding. It also formally recognizes the Sahtugot'ine's millennia-long stewardship in the Northwest Territories region. "It's a step in the right direction," said Danny Gaudet, the Délįnę Got'įnę government's Ɂek'wahtı̨dǝ́ or chief. "It's finally given us the ability to actually sit at the table to talk about the preservation of water, the lake, and the water bed and the land in and around Great Bear Lake."

The Tłı̨chǫ Government expressed "concern" over the N.W.T's decision not to approve an application by Diavik Diamond Mine to begin a process of progressive reclamation. The Tłı̨chǫ raised its issue with the decision in a letter dated July 27, stating the problem is around jurisdiction. The letter was addressed to Shane Thompson, the minister of environment and natural resources, claiming he is ignoring the treaty by rejecting a recommendation by the Wek'èezhı̀ı Land and Water Board, the land management authority for the area created after the Tłı̨chǫ agreement.

Daniel T'seleie, who is with the Keepers of Water, and Indigenous Climate Action, both Indigenous-led organisation focusing on climate change action, said climate change solutions on the agenda for COP27, like carbon trading, don't address what really needs to be done. "The only way to stop climate change," he said, "is to stop the extraction and use of fossil fuels. If that's not the flagship then we're not going to stop the climate crisis."