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Sumaúma: Journalism from Center of the World
Edition 48
Monday, 04 November, 2024
The failing COP system needs an indigenous boost
Jonathan Watts
Altamira, Xingu River, Amazon


“We are the answer!” There could not be a clearer or more positive statement on the climate and nature crises than the one issued by the Indigenous peoples of Brazil at last week’s United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia. And it could not be better timed as an antidote to the jaw-droppingly terrible decision of many national governments, including Brazil, to expand oil and gas production although – as we show in this issue – it is worsening droughts, intensifying fires and floods, contaminating rivers and causing other sharply deteriorating signs of climate breakdown.

This continued devotion to fossil fuels is so wrong in today’s messed up world that it feels surreal. How can political leaders not respond? Are they living in a different world? It is also astonishingly hypocritical as these same governments are aware of the dangers of global heating to their people, yet they are neglecting their promise to cut emissions.

Next week, the world will come together to try to find answers at the latest UN climate summit, COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. As usual, heads will be shaken, speeches will be made and money will be promised. But, also as usual, there is little prospect of real change. Azerbaijan is the third climate COP host in a row that plans to increase oil and gas production. Next year’s host Brazil also intends to boost production. How can the world cut emissions when the agenda is being set by those who want to expand?

The entire system needs radical change. For this reason, SUMAÚMA supports calls for a more powerful indigenous presence in COP30 in Belem. They need a decision-making role so they can fight the climate battle more fiercely.
Read more
The river in my village turned green – I was horrified to discover why

In the Xipaya Indigenous Territory, the Iriri River is suffering the effects of climate change, as its waters change color and its fish die. We Indigenous people are living in a time of uncertainty

Wajã Xipai, Terra do Meio, Amazônia
Carlos Nobre, a 'terrified but optimistic' scientist at the COP biodiversity conference

One of the world’s leading researchers on the Amazon and climate change says it’s still possible to prevent total collapse if we act now and listen to the real scientists: Indigenous people

Jaqueline Sordi, Cali, Colômbia
The horrifying desiccation of the Amazon

River levels have reached record lows in what is usually one of the planet’s great sources of freshwater, another sign that the vast rainforest basin is slipping toward a point of no return

SUMAÚMA
‘We run the risk of burning to death, of dying of hunger or thirst’

Indigenous leader Mara Xavante relates how the flames threatened her village in Mato Grosso, a state that suffered 19,964 fires in September

Jaqueline Sordi, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
The Indigenous attorney bringing the village to the court

Samara Pataxó studied law so she could help her relatives. Years later, Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin asked her to coordinate the Supreme Electoral Court’s diversity and inclusion area. She encourages Indigenous people, Black people and women to ‘open roads’ by occupying spaces of power

Malu Delgado, Brasília
Invisible cities

How do we deal with droughts and floods? How can we live in human and non-human community, with equity, comfort, and safety? We must tread lightly, our footsteps gentle

Sidarta Ribeiro
‘The flood proved that Rio Grande do Sul is Indigenous Territory’

Archeologist and historian João Heitor Silva talks about the post-flood discovery of hundreds of pre-Colonial Guarani items in an area that used to be a farm and he reflects on learnings from what may be the state’s largest archeological site

Pablito Aguiar, Alvorada, Rio Grande do Sul
Episode 51
A nonhuman take on the Amazon story. SUMAÚMA follows the journey of a howler...
Pablito Aguiar, Raimunda Tutanguira, and Jonathan Watts
Episode 52
..as he explores his forest home and tries to understand the humans who threaten it
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