Environment

The process of corporate plunder in the global mining industry is severely aggravating social and economic inequalities across the planet.

Climate-related displacement and food insecurity is not a future possibility, but it is already happening and it’s only projected to worsen without urgent action in coming years. According to the UN, weather-related hazards such as storms, droughts, and wildfires displaced 16.1 million people in 2018.

We need to value nature’s biodiversity, clean water, and seeds. For this, nature is the best teacher.

Eluminada Roca has lived all her life next to the Leyte Sab-a Basin peatlands. The grandmother from of San Isidro village in Philippines’ Leyte island grew up looking at the green hills that feed water to the peat land, she harvested tikog—a peatland grass to weave mats—and ate the delicious fish that was once in abundant in the waters. But today, the land is losing its water, the grass is disappearing and the fish stock has drastically decreased.

The more unequal a wealthy society, the greater the power of the rich — and the corporations they run — to ignore their debt to Mother Earth. That’s all the more reason to address the inequality that bestows so much power upon them.

This year's conference in Katowice, Poland, has kicked off. Here is a look at the issues up for debate, obstacles to negotiations and where all this leaves the majority world.