We have known about the consequences of the climate crisis for a long time and are already feeling them massively today. But there are still many who talk down or deny the global climate crisis. This must not be allowed to happen, explains Fridays for Future activist Giulia from the Global South in the eleventh part of the article series „Summer of Utopias“. Because: the climate crisis affects us all! This article is available in both English and German. For the german version, please click here.
It is not today that the world is already dealing with the devastating consequences of years of exploratory and invasive practices on the environment and the attempt to curb climate change, which is currently a reality denied and ignored by many. Living in a country like Brazil is like dealing with climate change daily, it is to be sure weekly that you will see in the news, reports about the increase in deforestation in the Amazon Forest, the presence of the massive mining exploration on indigenous lands and the return of devastating fires in Pantanal, and yet you will encounter an immense government negligence and a part of society that still denies climate change.
Talking about climate change in some countries and in the context of some societies is something that refers to a distant and very idealized future, especially in northern countries, which have well-developed economies and few problems related to the exploitation of non-renewable natural resources in their territories. However, in recent years, due to the overload of „underdeveloped“ countries, which deal with the exploitation of their environmental resources precisely by countries that do not suffer directly from this problem, the effects of such actions have begun to be felt in the funders of these activities.
Countries such as Canada, Germany and Portugal, considered countries with strong economies and significant representativeness in the global context, which did not directly face the consequences of climate change, such as floods and heat waves, began to deal in an emerging way with extreme climate events, as we could see even this year, when we watched the district Blessem of Erftstadt, in Germany, to be the scene of a historic flood to the country that has killed hundreds of people.
This shows us that events like this, which were already planned and alerted to the authorities by experts and scientists, continue to be faced late, remedied in fact, causing the death of many people. Deaths from climate events caused by climate change can be prevented with the proper attention and planning of governments, even if they can’t contain with a deadline like their predecessors. But, around the world, even in the most evolved countries, we have seen leaders who continue to deny, which include neglect the subject, the existence of a noticeable change in the global climate issue and this has contributed to predictable disasters, it is worth remembering, happening and victimising people who should be protected by their rulers.
Moreover, while facing recurrent environmental disasters around the world we have to deal with large companies, responsible for a significant part of the situation in which we live today, investing in their frightening and billionaire space exploration projects, when they could, clearly, allocate much of that amount to help reverse climate change, and not only it as the other problems that plague the Earth, as well as implementing in their own companies measures that could actually help reduce the effects of fatal climate events that may be to come.
At the same time as we witness the incompetence of world leaders, many prefer to ignore climate change because they believe they will not have to deal with the consequences, what they don’t see it is that in the current situation, in a maximum of 10 years, the world will already be suffering irreversible consequences of this process of reaction of the environment, so unless you are already at the end of your life, with more than 75 years, you will be present when we no longer have anthropological salvation, and all this make the thought of blaming others to be overcome, so keep this in mind: CLIMATE CHANGE WILL AFFECT YOU!
A large part of the population is not involved because they see the problem from an exclusively individual perspective, thinking only about the benefits that this would cause to themselves, but this will never be the right way to face this problem. It is only when we think of a problem and embrace it as a collectivity, as a society, that we are several steps ahead on the path to a solution. It is only when we think „this problem is mine“, „this problem is ours“, „I live in this place, so I have a social role for the place where I live“, that we have a reality more susceptible to advances. And we need, as soon as possible, that this becomes the point of view of more and more people, because denialism, individualism and neglectism is not going to get us anywhere, and I say this literally, with it we will have the extinction that we fear so much to have.
About the author: Giulia is a Law Student in Pará, Brazil, fellowship researcher at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (São Paulo), former researcher at the Museum Paraense Emilio Goeldi and activist of Fridays for Future Amazônia. She researchs about indigenous people and their rights in her country.
You can find a translation of this text here.