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Brazil Isn't the Only Far-Right Government Destroying the Planet
As the Amazon burns, the terrifying parallels between the U.S. and Brazilian governments highlight the damage authoritarian leaders are doing.
Aug 26, 2019
The Amazon is ablaze. This is horrific news for Brazilians, especially the indigenous peoples who have called the rainforest home for millennia, and for all of humanity as well.
The Amazon rainforest is a crucial carbon sink, absorbing atmospheric carbon that would otherwise heat the planet and accelerate the global climate crisis. Often called "the lungs of the planet," the Amazon region is also a crucial source of oxygen for all people.
Alarmingly, these fires are no natural disaster. They're a political disaster--one that's all too familiar to us here in the United States.
To date, the Amazon has suffered 85 percent more fires this year than last. No natural phenomena can explain this dramatic increase. In fact, most of these fires are intentionally started to clear land for agribusiness.
It's no coincidence that forest destruction has increased under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who assumed office in January.
Trump's national security adviser John Bolton has praised Bolsonaro as a "like-minded" partner.
Bolsonaro has promised to exploit the Amazon for agribusiness, mining, and other commercial activities. To do so, his administration has undermined laws protecting both forests and the people who live there--and launched openly racist attacks on indigenous peoples to marginalize them.
When confronted with evidence of his own misdeeds, Bolsonaro has done what authoritarians always do--shoot the messenger. He's called deforestation data from his own government "fake news" and fired the head of the agency that produced it. He is even claiming (without evidence) that the fires were started by NGOs to tarnish Brazil's reputation.
Sound familiar?
Here in the United States, the Trump Administration has repeatedly attempted to undermine the science on climate change, spread misinformation about wildfires, and retaliated against government scientists who work on climate change.
Where Bolsonaro deregulates the rainforest, Trump deregulates coal emissions (even as the government's own analysis shows the extra pollution will kill up to 1,600 people). Where Bolsonaro demonizes NGOs, Trump-allied state governments are criminalizing peaceful protests against fossil fuel infrastructure.
As in Brazil, the anti-extraction protests being targeted for criminalization in the United States are often indigenous-led. Meanwhile the Trump administration is systematically handing over sacred indigenous lands to oil and gas companies.
And don't forget about trying to sabotage international climate agreements.
The United States is the world's largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, yet Trump walked away from the Paris climate accord early in his term. Joining us as a climate "rogue state," Bolsonaro's Brazil tried to undermine the global climate talks in Poland last December.
You don't have to take my word on these parallels: Trump's national security adviser John Bolton has praised Bolsonaro as a "like-minded" partner.
The emergence of dangerous authoritarian governments--here and in Brazil, as well as in countries like India and the Philippines--is one of the gravest threats facing the world today. Not only because of the threats they pose to human rights and democracy, but because their political agendas deepens the climate crisis.
Transforming this reality must start by acknowledging it. The Amazon is already burning--now we need the movements against these governments to catch fire, too.
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Global Climate Strike in Pictures: Millions of Students Walk Out to Demand Planetary Transformation
"We are facing the greatest existential crisis humanity has ever faced. And yet it has been ignored. You who have ignored it know who you are.”
Mar 15, 2019
All over the planet on Friday, millions of children and young adults walked out of their classrooms in an unprecedented collective action to demand a radical and urgent shift in society's energy and economic systems in order to avert the worst impacts of human-caused global warming and climate change.
With demonstrations in more than 100 countries and tens of thousands of schools, the worldwide Climate Strike is the largest since 16-year-old Greta Thunberg sparked a wave of increasingly huge marches and walkouts with her one-person strike outside the Swedish Parliament last year.
Since then, Thunberg has admonished and appealed to world leaders at COP24 and Davos, successfully securing a commitment from the European Union to fight the climate crisis while inspiring strikes all over the world. European students began holding weekly walkouts in Brussels in December, while Australian, and German young people are among those who have organized strikes as well.
"We have been born into this world and we have to live with this crisis, and our children and our grandchildren," Thunberg told a crowd of her peers in Stockholm in Friday. "We are facing the greatest existential crisis humanity has ever faced. And yet it has been ignored. You who have ignored it know who you are."
In Pictures:
On social media, supporters posted images and videos of students chanting, marching, and waving signs demanding action from their elected officials as well as rebuking some leaders who have criticized the students for skipping school. As one sign in London read, "I'll do my work when you do yours."
Uganda:
\u201c#FridaysForFuture #climatestrike #schoolstrike4climate @vanessadantes1\u201d— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) 1552625003
\u201c#FridaysForFuture #climatestrike #schoolstrike4climate Uganda it's happening\u201d— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) 1552624895
Brussels:
\u201cLOOK AT THE SIZE OF THE MARCH IN BRUSSELS!!! Young people are rising in 2052 places in 123 countries on every continents. \n\nThere is no time to waste. We must #ActOnClimate. \n\n#climatestrike #klimaatstaking #FridayForFutures #GreenNewDeal @GretaThunberg \ud83c\udfac via @JohnHyphen\u201d— Mike Hudema (@Mike Hudema) 1552661528
\u201cOur house is on fire.\ud83d\udd25\ud83c\udf0d\ud83d\udd25 #Brussels #ClimateStrike today is bigger than ever before, loud & colorful. \ud83c\udfa8\ud83d\udc6a\ud83c\udfb5\ud83c\udfb6\u2614\ud83c\udf08 Politicians, do you hear us at last? When will you start to listen to #science & #students & #ActOnClimate? #FridaysForFuture #SchoolsStrike4Climate @GretaThunberg\u201d— Maria Gernert (@Maria Gernert) 1552656801
Minneapolis, Minnesota:
\u201cSign in St. Paul Minnesota:\n"If you don't act like adults, we will."\n#climatestrike #FridaysForFuture\u201d— Eric Holthaus (@Eric Holthaus) 1552672214
Montreal:
\u201cOfficially more than 150,000 students on #ClimateStrike in Montreal, the number just came in!! #FridaysForFuture #schoolstrike4climate #YouthStrike4Climate\u201d— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) 1552679311
Lisbon:
Oh boy, look what happened in Lisbon, Portugal.#FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/K1Ew1Zg4ey
-- Angela Fay (@lifelearner47) March 15, 2019
New York:
\u201cBeautiful scenes in NYC where thousands of students have gathered at Central Park for the #ClimateStrike. Huge cheers every time a new school joins in.\u201d— Dr. Lucky Tran (@Dr. Lucky Tran) 1552665997
Kyiv, Ukraine:
\u201cIn Kyiv, Ukraine, 100+ students appealed to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman and the govt to recognize climate change as one of the most pressing nationwide problems and to take appropriate action. #Climatestrike took place in six cities in Ukraine.\nPhotos: Olena Angelova\u201d— 350 dot org (@350 dot org) 1552664000
Barcelona:
\u201cHUGE! crowd out in #Barcelona as far as the eye can see. Young people are rising in 2052 places in 123 countries on every continents. \n\nThere is no time to waste. We must #ActOnClimate. \n\n#climatestrike #klimaatstaking #FridayForFutures #GreenNewDeal @GretaThunberg \ud83c\udfac @luckytran\u201d— Mike Hudema (@Mike Hudema) 1552663332
Santiago, Chile:
\u201cMientras algunos discuten por control de identidad a menores, #Admisi\u00f3nJusta u otras peque\u00f1eces, los j\u00f3venes solo piden tener un futuro para vivir \u00bfSe lo daremos? @sebastianpinera @MMAChile @CarolaSchmidtZ #FridaysForFuture #Santiago #climatechange\u201d— Mauro\ud83c\udf33 (@Mauro\ud83c\udf33) 1552671923
Nigeria:
\u201cIts my 16 weeks\n"Our earth is on fire"\n#ClimateStrike\n#FridaysForFuture in Nigeria.\nNow is the time for us to actions.\n2/n\n@GretaThunberg @350 \n@AlexandriaV2005 @havenruthie @Greenpeace \n@Greenpeaceafric @AfricaCRP @dheenylkhair\n@adebotes @zaynecowie\n@ThisIsZeroHour\u201d— Adenike Titilope Oladosu (@Adenike Titilope Oladosu) 1552651006
Paris:
\u201cWe are thousands of people in #Paris for the global strike for climate ! #Youth4Climate #FridayForFuture @GretaThunberg @FYEG @YouthFrance\u201d— Antoine Tifine \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udf3b (@Antoine Tifine \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udf3b) 1552655607
Bangladesh:
\u201c#climatestrike #fridaysforfuture #Bangladesh #barishal\u201d— munware alam nirjhor (@munware alam nirjhor) 1552642356
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Ahead of Global #ClimateStrike She Inspired, 16-Year-Old Greta Thunberg Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
"The massive movement Greta has set in motion is a very important peace contribution."
Mar 14, 2019
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old whose protests outside the Swedish parliament spurred a massive global movement of young people striking from school to demand bold action on the climate crisis, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"We have nominated Greta because the climate threat may be one of the most important causes of war and conflict."
--Freddy Andre Oevstegaard, Norwegian lawmaker
"We have nominated Greta because the climate threat may be one of the most important causes of war and conflict," Freddy Andre Oevstegaard, a parliamentary representative in Norway, told Norwegian newspaper VG.
Oevstegaard is one of the three Socialist Left Party members who nominated Thunberg. As he put it, "The massive movement Greta has set in motion is a very important peace contribution."
The Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce its latest laureates in October, and those selected will receive their prizes in December. While nominations must be submitted before February 1, news that Thunberg is being considered broke Wednesday.
Thunberg responded on social media by saying she is "honored and very grateful for this nomination."
Her nomination was welcomed by peace and environmental advocates around the world:
\u201cWe are certain that Greta would rather have government action on the sixth mass extinction than the Nobel Peace Prize should they win. That said, they can have both if we all #FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike until government acts: https://t.co/pnOA1LXvFo\nhttps://t.co/WuVpkQNJLz\u201d— Extinction Rebellion (@Extinction Rebellion) 1552554008
\u201cTo those wondering what the climate has to do w/peace, consider how many future military conflicts & humanitarian crises will result from serious climate change (land, water, food, migration/refugees). So, reducing that change would reduce that violence. https://t.co/WxELRdpfuN\u201d— Christian Christensen (@Christian Christensen) 1552511520
\u201c\ud83c\udf0d \n\nCongratulations Greta! \n\nI hope that you will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.\n\nAnd that you will then lobby for a new annual #NobelPrize for #ClimateChange.\n\nRT\n\n@GretaThunberg nominated for Nobel peace prize: \n\nhttps://t.co/qRmctqrxLI\n\n#FridaysForFuture #15MARCH\u201d— Alexander Verbeek \ud83c\udf0d (@Alexander Verbeek \ud83c\udf0d) 1552563280
Thunberg's #FridaysForFuture strikes started last fall with solitary protests urging Swedish lawmakers to crack down on the use of fossil fuels, but her refusal to attend school--inspired by American teens who organized for stricter gun laws after a mass shooting at their Florida high school--catalyzed youth climate strikes across the globe.
"The idea was to sit outside the Swedish parliament for three weeks. I think the timing and the concept must have been right," she toldNew Scientist Thursday. For her, the takeaway isn't the fact that children are protesting, but why young people have taken to the streets: "They talk about our age, our looks and so on. The emissions are still rising and that is all that matters. Nothing has happened, that is crucial to remember."
As the movement has grown, so has Thunberg's prominence as a powerful voice demanding more urgent climate action from world leaders. In less than a year, she has addressed crowds of thousands at demonstrations across Europe, delivered a TEDx Talk that's been viewed over a million times, rubbed elbows with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and even called out the Davos elite to their faces.
News of Thunberg's nomination comes as hundreds of thousands of students worldwide prepare for the #SchoolStrike4Climate on Friday. So far, more than 1,600 protests have been planned in over 100 countries. Find out how you can get involved.
\u201c1659 places in 105 countries. And counting. \nTomorrow we schoolstrike for our future. And we will continue to do so for as long as it takes. \nAdults are more than welcome to join us. \nUnite behind the science.\u201d— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1552542874
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