The indigenous people of the global rainforests deserve to live without having to burn their homes and transform them into production lines for Western meat demands, similarly, the immense biodiversity of the rainforest needs to be protected (presently over 100 precious species of animal, plant and insect are lost daily – once they’re gone they’re gone).
In the past 40 years, half of global forests have disappeared.
Nation States pledge this and that but ultimately we’re heading on a clear trajectory. NGOs, charities and grassroots initiatives such as Cool Earth, have been considered the most effective means of protecting these communities and mitigating the catastrophic effects of deforestation on the global ecology by the Effective Altruism community and David Attenborough, to name but two adherents.
Cool Earth work with 118 villages around the world to lock up some 230 million tonnes of CO2 (~230 million trees) by enabling locals to access long-term economic alternatives to destroying the forest, such as via education, sustainable fishing, cash crops (like coffee) etc. This goes a long way to solving the problem of western patronizing of the locals (i.e. you can’t do to your land what we did to ours – destroy the biodiversity and forests) while giving the most effective stewards of such lands (those who actually live there) the tools to defend their livelihood from illegal (or legal) logging operations.
A quick note on political action: it’s good practice to advocate for groups that one isn’t strictly speaking a part of, since it expands one’s sense of solidarity, to that end – I’m trying to direct some of the Haemophilia lobby’s influence towards climate change via my fundraiser for Cool Earth – since it isn’t everyday that those with bleeding disorders walk around volcanoes.
Thank you for reading!
Any support via donations, promotion and advocacy would be greatly appreciated.
Link to my Cool Earth Fundraising Page
Alistair Simmonds-Yoo 