ENVIRONMENT These are articles previously published by Toward Freedom related to this category.
El Salvador is now the first country in the world with an all-out ban on the mining of gold, silver, and other metals. The country’s legislative assembly passed a bill to that effect last week, on March 29.
As sea levels rise, the already low-lying landmass of Bangladesh is doubly threatened. Much of the country is less than five or so meters above sea level, constituting one of the most vulnerable areas on the planet when it comes to potentially devastating environmental change.
They are more than 370 million self-identified peoples in some 70 countries around the world. In Latin America alone there are over 400 groups, each with a distinct language and culture, though the biggest concentration is in Asia and the Pacific– with an estimated 70 per cent. And their traditional lands guard over 80 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity.
The catastrophic climate change is no longer a subject for argument, at least on a mainstream level within the science community. Yet, as temperatures continue to rise, American efforts to combat global warming sadly seem to decline.
The power of mobilized, united people was proven once again on December 4, when the Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit necessary for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to be laid under the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s ancestral Missouri River. The Army announced that it would explore alternative routes. Despite these advances, victory is not assured.
In the shadow of the Trump election, I found myself explaining to world climate leaders how to see Standing Rock through an indigenous lens.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019