Indigenous peoples struggle
The consequences of Climate Change are experienced by each one of us around the globe in one way or the other. It’s drawing more attention from media, researchers, and politicians now than ever before due to rapid pace the climate change affecting the whole world.
But, it’s really sad to state that minorities and indigenous peoples struggle still getting rare mention although they are among the worst affected. Indigenous people are really struggling for their livelihood. They are paying the price for which they are in no way responsible.
Indigenous people struggling
Indigenous community resides in almost all corners of the world and hold ancestral right to more than 60% of our planet. It won’t be wrong to say that these people directly or indirectly play an important role to defend our ecosystem. Their contribution to culture and traditional knowledge also can’t be overlooked.
However, we need to accept the fact that these people are struggling and more important is that it’s we who are making them struggle. Since long, we have kept them treating as a second class citizens depriving them of their own land, culture and even their basic human rights.
It’s our activities not limited to deforestation, industrialization which have made their lives miserable.
Now when I say we, I point out to the industry practices and the government policies that largely determine how much heat-trapping emissions our human activities produce.
Carbon burnt by the industries is in fact, causing climate change, humans are just doing activities which in an ideal world would continue. Global warming is happening due to burning massive amounts of coal, oil, and gas as well destruction of tropical forests.
It’s the indigenous people, who experience the negative impact of climate change as they are very closely associated with nature and natural resource dependent lifestyle.
In fact climate change is making their lives worse day by day.
Struggle at Every Corner of the Earth
- Indigenous people residing in the high altitudes of Himalayas are facing water shortage in most of the part of the year as climate change induced glacier melt result in more water in long run and less water in long run.
- Deforestation largely impacting the forests resulting in Forest fires due to frequent droughts and this heavily affecting the indigenous people residing there and already struggling for their livelihood and existence.
- Even the indigenous people living in the arctic region struggling, as they face challenges for food security and poor health. They Hunt for polar bears, sea animals and practice fishing and reindeer herding. Climate change has induced changes in species composition and diversity which has led these people to struggle for food and nutritional security.
- Indigenous people who earlier resided in Kalahari basin (Africa) are now moving here and there in search of water. Many have shifted around the government drilled bores and are highly dependent on government for their livelihood.
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Thus it can be easily concluded that these indigenous people residing in different corners all around the globe struggling in one way or the other.
These people are not able to enjoy the same degree of fundamental human rights as rest of the population. They face constant threat from dominant communities who often abrade their customs and values.
Voice of Indigenous people Unheard
We need to accept the fact that these indigenous people play a crucial role in protecting the forest and eco system where they reside.
As per the recently released scientific data, there is enormous potential for carbon capture in degraded indigenous community lands provided they are better protected and restored.
Indigenous community are fighting hard to make their voice heard by the global leaders. They are protesting for climate justice which they have been kept deprived of since long.
One such protest was visible in the recently concluded COP 25 summit in Madrid where lakhs of protesters belonging to various indigenous groups protested in front of world leaders such that by any means their voices are heard and international climate policy include their expertise and interests.
But, sadly environmental activists and indigenous leaders were stripped of their badges & evicted from the conference.
Indigenous people have always been sidelined during any official international efforts to combat the climate crisis. They have been ignored in formulating any national plans to stop climate change.
Voices of these people need to be heard and deserve respect from dominant population as they are the one that are being hit the most by the climate emergency. Their knowledge on environment can play a crucial role in this crucial time of crisis.
Tags: #climate, #climatechange, #climatecrisis, #climatestrike, #environment, #fridaysforfuture, #getgreengetgrowing, #globalwarming, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #indigenous, #nature, #savetheplanet, #struggle, #sustainability
