Environment

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.

Every year an estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste end up in the world’s oceans. The U.N. warns there will more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.

“Nearly 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity is found on the lands of tribal peoples and that the majority of the most biodiverse places on Earth are tribal peoples’ territories,” said Juan Carlos Jintiach, a representative of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin. “Tribal people have been contributing and sustainably using the resources on their lands for thousands of years and it’s not possible to create policies that will be effective without their input.”

Around the world, people are realizing the current path will lead only to disaster, and they’re beginning to ask the hard questions about what to do next.