Essay: Armed militias in Brazil hold enormous sway over fate of Amazon – and the global climate
UK-based scholar NICHOLAS POPE, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at how, with the help of militias and mafias, land-grabbing and resource exploitation continue in the Brazilian Amazon…
Pope, starting Canada trip, says he has “great desire” to visit Kyiv
Aboard the papal planeReuters Pope Francis said on Sunday he yearned to visit Ukraine, in his efforts to try and bring an end to a five-month-old war that he has repeatedly decried. “I have a great desire to go to Kyiv,” the Pope said when asked about a possible future trip to Ukraine. He was […]
Papal trip: Indigenous Canadians wary, hopeful as Pope prepares apology
PETER SMITH, of Associated Press, on how, ahead of the papal trip this week, Indigenous Canadians are voicing a range of scepticism, wariness and hope…
Pope Francis’ meeting with Canada’s Indigenous to focus on elderly, environment
Vatican CityRNS Pope Francis will travel to Canada on Sunday for what he has described as a “penitential pilgrimage” to atone for the Catholic Church’s part in the persecution of Indigenous communities and its mistreatment and alienation of Indigenous children in residential schools. But Francis’ six-day apostolic visit isn’t only about bringing the Pope’s presence […]
Pope’s missing apology adds to “lack of trust” from Indigenous people in Canada
Vatican CityRNS A meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and the Indigenous communities in Canada, originally scheduled for 17th to 20th December, was postponed due to the pandemic with the promise that the Pope might visit the country next year. But the scandals tied to the Christian-run residential schools in Canada, as well as […]
Religion and climate: US faith groups increasingly join fight against climate change
LUIS ANDRES HENAO and JESSIE WARDARSKI, of Associated Press, report on how faith groups, including Christians, are increasingly becoming involved in the fight to address climate change…
In Peru’s Amazon, ‘forgotten’ tribes discover COVID-19 as vaccines arrive
Mangual, PeruReuters Mariano Quisto, a remote community leader in Peru’s dense Amazon rainforest, first learned of the global pandemic in October when health workers arrived by boat at his isolated village with vaccines. “We didn’t know about COVID-19. This is the first we are hearing about it,” Quisto said through a translator from the village […]
Climate change threatens age-old Indigenous food systems, says UN
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThomson Reuters Foundation From the Arctic to the Amazon, the traditional food gathering techniques of Indigenous communities are under threat from accelerating climate change and economic pressures, the United Nations said on Friday. Food systems used by different Indigenous peoples were found to be among the world’s most sustainable in terms of […]
“Starve to death or die of COVID” – stark choice for Brazil’s poor
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThomson Reuters Foundation Coronavirus is spreading and deaths are mounting – but what most worries the leaders of Brazil’s isolated and vulnerable communities is how on earth to feed people now government has pulled their main emergency aid. Ivone Rocha is co-founder of Semeando Amor, a non-profit that distributes basic staples to […]
Essay: Indigenous Mexicans turn inward to survive COVID-19, barricading villages and growing their own food
In an article first published on The Conversation, JEFFREY H COHEN, professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University, looks at how Indigenous communities in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca are responding to the coronavirus pandemic…