(Sponsored) For six months, I lived with Emberá communities in the Darien region of Panama. There, I saw the frightening pace at which Indigenous people, often dependent on the natural world, must adapt to deforestation and biodiversity loss.
For another six, I measured the Illecillewaet and Athabasca Glaciers in Canada. There, I saw how glaciers — the main sources of fresh water in these parts of the world — are melting rapidly. There’s no denying that these research experiences impacted me. I returned having seen the natural world changing before my eyes.
Later, as I worked as a contributing author for the 2007 IPCC Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry report (part of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC), the gravity of the climate crisis struck me afresh. Here it was again in writing: All our futures are uncertain — all our emissions count.
But while glacial researchers and the Emberá people are facing up to the climate and nature crises, some people still seem to feel immune. I can’t help but notice an element of denial among businesses in the global north.
Many corporations have not yet grasped that they put their supply chains, their operations and their staff at risk when they fail to cut their polluting emissions. It has not sunk in that unless they take…
