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Link to the news article about the youth: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/46209/1/who-isindigenous-climate-change-activist-artemisa-xakriaba
Artemisa Xakriabá is an indigenous climate activist of 19 years old, whose aim is to stop environmental destruction across Brazil, and especially, the Amazon rainforest. She took part in the first-ever march for indigenous women, held in Brazil, which saw tens of thousands of indigenous women take to the streets of Brazil’s capital Brasília for days to denounce government policies relating to the explosion in forest fire occurrences in the Amazon. Because of her role in this movement, she went to America to attend the climate talks and seek the support of international leaders, which resulted in her talking to members of the US congress and US House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi in Washington, urging senators “to lead the community of nations into caring for our common home”. Artemisa also delivered the closing speech at the climate strike in New York, where she spoke about the increasing destruction of the rainforest, which is directly linked to corporate mining and agriculture, pointing out that the indigenous people are overwhelmingly affected by climate change.
For sure, the countries that have benefited the most from using fossil fuels are the biggest economies worldwide, such as China, the United States, and India. These countries’ economy is mainly based on industry, and because of that, they emit a lot of carbon and pollution. However, these countries will not be the most impacted by climate change because they have the means to deal with those impacts (economic resources) and a huge influence around the world. In fact, the countries that will suffer the most from climate change will be the developing and underdeveloped countries due to their relatively low levels of wealth, technology, education, infrastructure and access to resources. Some examples of these countries are Camboja, Pakistan and Thailand.
The ones who will suffer the most by climate change are the poorer communities due to the lack of resources they will face. Some examples of places and populations that are the most vulnerable to climate change are
- Lagos, Nigeria: Its population is increasing rapidly, and it is the main city in Nigeria, with the biggest GDP in the country. In the future, Lagos residents will experience more hot days and droughts. Climate change could threaten the city's economy. Also, the city is especially vulnerable because it’s located on the Gulf of Guinea, so as sea levels rise, it’s likely to affect cause coastal erosion and contaminate the potable water. This could harm local agriculture in the countryside and damage the country’s fishing industry, which could be dire in a country with “tremendous” poverty.
- Haiti: Since Haiti is a very poor country, recovering from natural disasters and preparing for future storms is especially challenging.The landscape is also heavily deforested and mountainous, which means it will be more susceptible to landslides. Furthermore, Haiti will also struggle because the population is dependent on agriculture, and rising sea levels mean that saltwater may contaminate freshwater.
- Yemen: Countries with weak institutions and governments, like Yemen, are likely to find it especially difficult to adapt to climate change. This country lives in a civil war since 2015, and both war and climate change will make water shortages and famine more likely. According to an United Nations report, most contemporary famines result from armed conflict and are worsened by natural disasters.
In my perception, the Global North countries have a bigger moral obligation to reduce carbon emission. of course that all countries have an impact on climate change, but in different proportions. The countries from the North are the most developed countries in the world. Consequently, their economy is based mainly on the industry. Therefore, they tend to emit more Green House Gases than the developing countries. For instance, China emitted 9,7 billions tons of CO2, and the USA, 5,3 in 2017. These countries should put more effort than the others on this resolution, and make internal politics to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide.
Some systemic changes that Brazil could make that would help us move towards climate justice are properly demarcating the indigenous lands, passing more legislation that holds agricultural giants accountable for their actions, and promoting education about the topic of sustainability, climate change and global warming.
Some policies in my community we could try to change in order to move towards climate justice are creating campaigns that influence the residents to recycle and do not throw the litter in inappropriate places, and make monthly meetings through the neighborhood to plant trees around it.
