Archives du Climate Update

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

From deep-sea mining to climate change, this Indigenous woman sees a better future for the world's oceans.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Yasuní has become an emblematic place and moment where the multiple crises of our time converge: climatic, ecological, economic, and political. It is a historical knot that concentrates the global contradictions between extractivism and sustainability, between capital expansion and the defense of life.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

We're living through a crisis of colonialism. Imagine if we rolled up our sleeves instead of pointed our fingers? – Jessica Hernandez is an indigenous climate scientist and author of Growing Papaya Trees. Her work reveals that the roots of our planetary crisis lies in the violence of colonialism and neo-colonialism.

POLITIQUE

This year’s UN Climate Summit (COP30), to be held in Brazil in November, presents a pivotal opportunity for governments to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities as the frontline stewards of the world’s forests.

JUSTICE CLIM.

The landmark ruling by the world's top court says national climate policies must protect Indigenous and minority rights - but to be effective, it needs to be enforced by states

DROIT & LITIGE

The move by the Colorado River Indian Tribes in Arizona and California would give rights of nature to the water, marking a historic first.

CULTURE & EDUC.

This is the message of this week’s guest, Aboriginal scholar and author, Tyson Yunkaporta. In his explanation of the importance of learning through living, and living with learning, Tyson points to the how the discourse around decolonisation has granted expertise based on identity rather than experience. He highlights how indigenous thinking is fundamentally consensus building, mirroring the Western scientific method, and warns that neoliberal thinking has infected what should have been a radical transformation, creating individuals who consider themselves fully contained “little corporations”.

POLITIQUE

Lula da Silva partially vetoed a "devastation bill" passed by Congress, but Brazil still allowed weakened environmental controls

POLITIQUE

Die Urvölker gelten als Schlüssel im Kampf gegen den Klimawandel. Anlässlich des Tags der indigenen Völker fordern sie ein Mitspracherecht beim nächsten Weltklimagipfel in Belém.

IMPACTS

Weaving is central to cultural life in Samoa but climate change is disrupting conditions needed for plants used to make the intricate mats

ACTIVISME

The inside story of how Greenpeace stood with water protectors – and got hit with a $666 million court judgment.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

"A single word like 'X̱maay' contains generations of climate knowledge, laws, and cultural practices."

IMPACTS

With over 40,000 people evacuated and infrastructure overwhelmed, Indigenous leaders say climate change is hitting their homelands hardest.

ANTI-CLIMAT

Port Heiden is facing an energy crisis. A $300,000 grant from the EPA would have helped the traditional Alutiiq community swap costly, polluting diesel for cheaper, clean power.

CAUSES

The Trump administration wants to fast-track logging in the Black Hills. What could go wrong? A lot, say tribes, scientists, and conservationists.

LIVRES MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Alice Mah’s book explores cultural and ecological loss through the lens of a trip to south China

CAUSES

New report says the government ignores local and international laws that protect Indigenous rights.

CULTURE & EDUC.

Pope Francis made a strong moral case for addressing climate change and respecting Indigenous rights. Will Leo do the same?

JUSTICE CLIM.

Two of Kenya’s biggest carbon credit projects are mired in controversy, clouding the country’s hopes of raising climate finance from the offset market

RECOMMANDÉ JUSTICE CLIM.

The Achuar people first came into contact with the outside world sixty years ago. Since then, they have mostly been left in peace, able to take what they want from the modern world and leave the rest. That’s changing now. Their territory is under threat by careerist politicians within their own community, by other indigenous nations whose populations have exponentially increased thanks to contact with fossil fuels, and by industry who, every year, is figuring out how to penetrate even deeper into the forest.

JUSTICE CLIM.

For years, colonists extracted coal from the Wayuu people's territory. Now it's been marked as the heart of Colombia's energy transition

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Sur l'île de Bornéo, en Asie du Sud-Est, un immense projet de compensation des émissions de CO2 est en place depuis plus de dix ans. Vantée par les initiants, la protection de la forêt tropicale est toutefois très lacunaire et le projet suscite la colère des populations locales.

DROIT & LITIGE

Mit der ecuadorianischen Verfassung ist die Natur als Rechtssubjekt anerkannt worden.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Das Küme mogen oder «Buen Vivir» gibt wieder, wie die Völker ihre gesellschaftliche Verbindung mit der Erde, mit dem Itxofill mogen, der Biodiversität, auffassen.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Representatives from three tribes discuss how their communities have learned to endure by celebrating connections.

TECH. & ÉNERGIE

Global temperatures rose and extreme weather ramped up, but there were also some significant breakthroughs for the climate this year. Here are seven quiet wins that may have gone under your radar in 2024.

RECOMMANDÉ MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Indigenous and local knowledge systems’ ability to nurture human-nature interconnection can play an important role in creating the type of transformative change needed to address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, according to a new report published Dec. 16 by the U.N.’s biodiversity policy panel.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

During the hottest year ever, these moments provided a silver lining.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Communities like the Makahs, Yakamas and Puyallup lived in harmony with the rivers and coasts of the U.S. Pacific Northwest for generations. They revered the salmon, relying on it for food, livelihoods and cultural traditions. Waterways and salmon populations thrived — and so did native communities. But beginning in the mid-1800s, everything changed.

IMPACTS

New export terminals along the rugged Pacific coastline have reignited a generations-old debate over identity and environmental stewardship.

ACTIVISME POLITIQUE

Native leaders ready for a fight as Trump calls ANWR, one of the last truly wild places on Earth, the US’s ‘biggest oil farm’

POLITIQUE

“This entire process has been a violation,” said one Indigenous representative who engaged in protest at the summit.

JUSTICE CLIM.

The Land Back movement is long-overdue justice. It’s also a climate solution.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

My mother showed me the importance of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women in protecting the natural world. Yet they continue to face barriers and discrimination in their work

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

What Indigenous knowledge could mean in the fight to curb global warming. Hi, I’m Paige Vega, Vox’s climate editor.

DROIT & LITIGE

This is the worst year on record for Amazon forest loss in the country, fueled by slash-and-burn agriculture and climate change. It's putting Indigenous peoples' lives and culture at risk.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Introducing a limited-run series exploring Indigenous solutions to extreme weather rooted in history — and the future. In recent years, there’s been a growing appreciation for Indigenous land stewardship and traditional knowledge.

SCIENCES

The factoid about biodiversity and Indigenous peoples spread around the world, but scientists say bad data can undermine the very causes it claims to support

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

How one Karuk fire crew leader is decolonizing our relationship to fire.

TECH. & ÉNERGIE

A high-level panel is working to define principles for responsible mining, which will be presented to the UN General Assembly in September

ACTIVISME DROIT & LITIGE

The environmental group, which is being sued by the pipeline company in North Dakota, threatened to use new European rules to try to limit potential damages.

LIVRES

Ailton Krenak was a child when his family was forced to leave their land in Brazil. Now, as a writer, he advocates for a path forward that looks to nature and inherited wisdom.

POLITIQUE

Indigenous water protectors say Walz broke his promise to stop a massive tar sands pipeline from passing through their protected land.

ACTIVISME

Die indigenen Völker im Amazonas­gebiet erheben ihre Stimme immer lauter. Doch solange andere in der Ölförderung Profit wittern, hat Umwelt­aktivismus einen hohen Preis. Eine Begegnung mit der ecuadorianischen Vorkämpferin Nemonte Nenquimo.

RECOMMANDÉ JUSTICE CLIM.

Addressing climate justice calls for a “fundamental, decolonial constitutional change”, according to a new study published in Climate Policy.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Around the world, Indigenous peoples are using ancestral knowledge to adapt to extreme weather events and protect ecosystems

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Alaska is warming far faster than most of the world. For Indigenous people on the front lines, adaptation can be surprisingly simple.

RECOMMANDÉ MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Mächtige Konzerne wollten an das Öl unter ihrem Stammes­gebiet. Ecuadors Regierung witterte Profit. Doch die Widerstands­kraft der Indigenen war stärker. Erinnerungen der Aktivistin Nemonte Nenquimo.

CULTURE & EDUC.

Climate-related migration and seasonal changes are forcing Indigenous peoples to leave their native regions—and leave behind the languages tied to them.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Around the world, Indigenous peoples are using ancestral knowledge to adapt to extreme weather events and protect ecosystems

ÉCONOMIE

Faith-based climate advocates’ transparency efforts are more than a “Hail Mary.”

TECH. & ÉNERGIE

Mining companies have been offered a path to sustainability but few are taking it – Indigenous people need to be at the table demanding change

JUSTICE CLIM.

Logging companies have “acquired” roughly 1m hectares of Indigenous peoples’ territory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2000, according to a new study.

JUSTICE CLIM. TECH. & ÉNERGIE

Ein Windpark verstösst gegen Indigenenrechte, darf aber stehen bleiben. Doch die Aktivist:innen, die dagegen protestierten, stehen nun vor Gericht. Das hat auch mit der Zürcher Gesellschaft Energy Infrastructure Partners und der Berner BKW zu tun.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Klimaanpassung darf nicht nur aus eurozentrischer Sicht erfolgen, heißt es in einem Fachartikel zu indigenem und lokalem Wissen. Die Wissenschaftler:innen untersuchten vier Fallbeispiele aus Südostasien.

TECH. & ÉNERGIE

Indonesia supplies the EV industry with critical battery materials but the sector’s rapid expansion is infringing the rights of Indigenous peoples

ACTIVISME

The defense for three activists from First Nations argues abuse of process by security forces around the pipeline construction site, as the U.N. and Amnesty International allege excessive force, surveillance and criminalization of land defenders.

JUSTICE CLIM.

The first time, they came at 2am and without a warrant. Rosa* was alone. She was gagged, her eyes covered, and her hands bound with a cable tie. It was the night after widespread protests against sweeping changes to the constitution in Jujuy, a northern Argentine province.

CAUSES

Brazilian officials served up an array of plans and figures at the recent COP28 climate summit in Dubai, presenting itself as a world leader, on track to protect its forests and the people who live there.

RECOMMANDÉ CULTURE & EDUC. MITIGATION & ADAPT.

As many Indigenous languages are at risk of disappearing, scientists and communities are joining forces to preserve the traditional ecological knowledge they harbor. Scientists had no idea whether the black-naped pheasant pigeon still existed.

POLITIQUE

As the leaders of the developed world hailed the Cop28 agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels as historic, Indigenous people, frontline communities and climate justice groups rebuked the deal as unfair, inequitable and business as usual.

POLITIQUE

Climate change imperils Indigenous ecosystems, food security, knowledge bases and ways of life, leaders say, making rapid action to reduce emissions a “matter of life and death.”

DROIT & LITIGE

The Education of Judith Kimerling: An American lawyer’s epic struggle to stop expanding oil operations harming Indigenous peoples in Ecuador’s Amazon. Part one.

DROIT & LITIGE

The Education of Judith Kimerling: An American lawyer’s epic struggle to stop expanding oil operations harming Indigenous peoples in Ecuador’s Amazon. Part two.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Couto is a quilombola, an Afro-Brazilian descendent of escaped slaves, many of whom established homes in the most forested parts of the Amazon. She grew up in a community called São João, aware that it was inextricably linked to the river and trees. Then the carbon offset developers arrived.

JUSTICE CLIM.

Vertrieben im Namen des Klimas: Wo reiche Staaten ihre CO₂-Emissionen kompensieren wollen, geschieht dies nicht selten auf Kosten der lokalen Bevölkerung. Die kenianische Aktivistin und Anthropologin Milka Chepkorir fordert eine Umkehr.

DROIT & LITIGE

Retten wir die Erde, nicht den Kapitalismus! In etwa so lässt sich zusammen­fassen, was der damalige bolivianische Präsident Evo Morales der Welt­gemeinschaft am Uno-Klimagipfel 2010 im mexikanischen Badeort Cancún zurief.

RECOMMANDÉ MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Auch der Weltklimarat anerkennt mittlerweile: Von indigenen Gemeinschaften lässt sich lernen, wie ein nachhaltiger Umgang mit natürlichen Ressourcen möglich wird. Und im Amazonasbecken erprobt eine «Pluriversität» einen radikalen Ansatz.

DROIT & LITIGE

Ein Gesetz, das Indigenen verbieten wollte, weitere Ansprüche auf die Rückgabe von Land zu erheben, ist ungültig. Gerichtsentscheid zugunsten der indigenen Bevölkerung: Das oberste Gericht Brasiliens hat nach monatelangen Beratungen ein umstrittenes Gesetz für ungültig erklärt.

POLITIQUE

An indigenous leader has called for indigenous people around the world to abandon the United Nations and create the United Indigenous Nations.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

After 50 years of expanding oil operations in its Amazonian region, Ecuador will close the door on crude extraction in three oil fields that are home to Indigenous communities, including one of the country’s uncontacted groups.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Jair Candor had been searching the Amazon rainforest for three days when he heard their voices.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

The wildfire was blazing a clear path toward a Canadian lakeside tourist spot in British Columbia with a population of 222,000 people. The fire advanced on the city of Kelowna for 19 days — consuming 976 hectares, or about 2,400 acres — of forest.

ÉCONOMIE

Red. Das Folgende ist die Zusammenfassung einer Recherche der Menschenrechtsorganisation Public Eye. Der Regenwald von Borneo bekam nach der Holz- und Palmölindustrie einen neuen Feind: die Kohlekonzerne.

CAUSES

“Maria Joel was a normal housewife with four underage children whose husband was murdered. She held her husband in her arms while he was dying. She had two choices.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

The Biden administration took action on Friday to block new oil and gas leasing on federal land around Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, one of the nation’s oldest and most culturally significant Native American sites.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Episode 42 – April 2023

World Indigenous leaders meeting this week at an annual UN summit have warned that the west’s climate strategy risks the exploitation of Indigenous territories, resources and people.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Many have heard the expression that tropical rainforests are ‘the lungs of the Earth’. But for Indigenous Peoples, the rainforest is more like our beating heart. Forests are the center and soul of our communities, our culture, and our health.

IMPACTS

The illegal tin mine was so remote that, for three years, the massive gash it cut into the Amazon rainforest had gone largely ignored. So when three mysterious helicopters suddenly hovered overhead, unannounced, the miners living there scrambled into the forest.

Last summer, a third of Pakistan was underwater. My country, the fifth most populous in the world, was submerged. Two million homes were destroyed, thousands of acres of agricultural land were flooded and 90% of the crops in Sindh, a food belt, were damaged.

ACTIVISME

Did you know that Indigenous people are saving 80% of the world’s biodiversity? Despite their deep connection to and knowledge of, precious natural resources like the Amazon rainforest and Arctic Ice, Indigenous peoples voices are rarely heard on the world forum.

Les terres rares sont un sous-produit du fer. Ce gisement découvert dans la plus grande mine souterraine du monde pourrait répondre aux besoins toujours plus grands de ces composants indispensables à la transition vers le tout-électrique.

RECOMMANDÉ JUSTICE CLIM.

Mit dem Mythos von Nachhaltigkeit würden Politik und Unternehmen die Ausbeutung der Welt vorantreiben, kritisiert Ailton Krenak. Der brasilianische Philosoph fordert eine Diät für die Industriestaaten. Amazonien, das grösste und vielfältigste Ökosystem, steht kurz vor dem Umkippen.

ACTIVISME RECOMMANDÉ

Nick Estes did not intend to write a book about Standing Rock.

ACTIVISME

Nach Protesten gegen Windkraftparks im Gebiet der Samen vollzieht norwegische Regierung eine Kehrtwende. Auch Greta Thunberg unterstützte den Protest. STOCKHOLM taz | Am Freitagvormittag kam endlich das Eingeständnis.

ACTIVISME

Indigenous and environmental activists, including Greta Thunberg, blocked access to several Norwegian government ministries on Tuesday, expanding a protest demanding the removal of wind turbines from reindeer pastures.

ACTIVISME

"Aujourd'hui, nous fermons l'Etat", a lancé la musicienne et militante samie Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen aux protestataires pour la plupart vêtus du costume traditionnel bleu et rouge de cette population qui vit dans une zone couvrant le nord de la Norvège, de la Suède et de la Finlande, ainsi que

RECOMMANDÉ MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Das Wissen von indigenen Gemeinschaften wurde jahrhundertelang ignoriert und marginalisiert.

RECOMMANDÉ MITIGATION & ADAPT.

This week the UK government is holding a meeting to discuss generating more finance to conserve and restore nature. This is following its adoption of a global biodiversity framework in Montreal – the so-called biodiversity Cop15 – in December.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Most people know that Brazil’s rainforests are rapidly disappearing, and that the loss accelerates global climate change while harming the communities living under the trees’ canopy.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

As a child, Stephen Lewis heard stories about a river that, for the most part, no longer flowed. “How I grew up was that it was a theft, that it was stolen from us,” he told me late last year. “There was what we used to call the Mighty Gila River, and now it was just pretty much dry.

SUPERIOR, Ariz. — As Wendsler Nosie finished his evening prayers sitting before a mesquite fire, a ceremonial yucca staff festooned with eagle feathers by his side, he gazed sternly toward a distant mesa where mining companies hope to extract more than a billion tons of copper.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Only 5% of net forest loss occurs in Indigenous territories and protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon – even though these areas contain more than half of the region’s forest.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

Watching the first few minutes of “The Territory,” a new documentary set in the Amazon rainforest, is like listening to a symphony of deforestation. The film opens with the sound of an engine revving, the camera lingering on a boot pressed down on a dusty gas pedal.

CAUSES

Eine Ölpipeline schlängelt sich durch die Landschaft in Alaska. Foto: Getty Images Weht am Dach eines Hauses eine Flagge, heisst das: Wal gefangen! Und an diesem Herbsttag wehen in Nuiqsut an der Nordküste Alaskas viele Fahnen. Darunter, auf Tischen unter freiem Himmel, liegen Berge von Fleisch.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

This time of year, global and social leaders gather at the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP) to seek solutions and to confront the climate crisis that threatens society as a whole.

MITIGATION & ADAPT.

How can communities govern their lands in the present and preserve it for future generations? We will hear about two entirely different examples of community-led protected areas.

CAUSES

Energiekonzerne investieren in Texas Milliarden, um klimaschädliches Erdgas in die Welt zu exportieren. Indigene Aktivist:innen fordern nun hiesige Geldgeber auf, sich aus diesem Geschäft zurückzuziehen. «Nehmen Sie Ihr Geld weg von der Credit Suisse.

SCIENCES

Can science help Indigenous peoples protect themselves and the world’s largest rainforest? Drug runners, gold miners and loggers are rapidly invading the remote Peruvian Amazon, home to isolated people and a wealth of biodiversity.