Earth Day on April 22 spurred debates about how to tackle our global ecological crisis. Global Voices spoke with Miryam Vargas, a Nahuatl journalist from Choluteca, Mexico, to help us understand what we can learn from Indigenous communities.
Vargas reports on environmental issues and has worked alongside her native community for more than a decade. She believes the key to climate and environmental emergency is found in Indigenous and rural communities, not in Western, urban, or “green capitalist” solutions. Vargas also wants to switch off the narratives of fatalism – “that we are all doomed.”
She is part of Futuros Indígenas (“Indigenous Futures”), a network of Indigenous journalists in Mexico who work to reframe the climate emergency on their terms. They tackle obsolete narratives about Indigenous people, development, and gloom.
For example, just 100 companies are responsible for more than 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions since 1988, and more than half of all world emissions can be traced to just 25 private and state-owned corporations. The effects of inaction about climate change are dire for humankind and the rest of the species. Climate change is not only about fossil fuels — it also comprises damage to biodiverse ecosystems, deforestation, overconsumption of natural resources (including in the technological and fashion industries), industrial agriculture, and more.
By contrast, Indigenous people protect 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity and are therefore crucial in mitigating the effects of climate change.
To read more of Melissa Vida's article, please click here.
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