There are two COPs in the Amazon: the official one and its transgression. Anyone who has never been to the Blue Zone of the climate summit, the most chosen place as the venue for negotiations, can imagine a (huge) space that is a mix between a spaceship and a sofa. Completely closed, artificially air-conditioned, manned by the police and also by the Army. It’s still the same architecture, no matter which region of the world hosts it. This one, in the Amazon, has only companion plants, sad trees, placed there carelessly to pretend there is greenery, and panels with photographs of animals. But it’s in the Amazon, and Brazil is a democratic country. The thousands of indigenous peoples who have arrived from every corner of the map have come to a more than logical conclusion: if there is still the jungle, if there is still some biome, it is because we protect them with our bodies. Or, as they say: “The answer is us”. And so it is. Therefore, they decided to undertake COP to realize COP.
It all started with two demonstrations at the beginning of the summit, by indigenous people from different parts of the Tapajós River. In one, protesters broke into the Blue Zone. In the other they asked to enter and entered. Then, on Saturday 15 November, a never-before-seen climate march took to the streets of Belém. It wasn’t a march, it was a dance. For the nature people of Brazil, the struggle is a celebration, and the celebration is something very serious.
They were joined by the best of Brazil, that part of the country that breaks through the cracks of violence and concrete even in brutal moments. There were rhythms like the carimbó, the brega, the lambada; There were the giant snake, the old Matinta Pereira, the human-dolphins, characters from the magical reality of the Amazon. The cultural movements of Belém brought their allegorical clothes, their colors and their instruments to the streets. It was not a bubble of environmentalists, but of waste collectors, electricians, embroiderers, clothing sellers, teachers, LGBTIQ+ activists who allied themselves with indigenous peoples and a diversity of traditional peoples. They paraded along the avenue with their rituals and their spirituality, making joy the power to act. Oil, mining companies, agribusiness, all the predators of the Amazon were buried there.
But more was needed. And on Monday the indigenous people took to the streets again to hold a march of their own. “Where we put our feet, plants are born. Where we put our feet, springs are born. (From) Where our people come out, there is devastation,” said Amõkanewy Kariú, of the Kariú people. As has always been known through oral tradition, but science had to prove it for non-indigenous people to believe, part of the Amazon rainforest was planted by the ancestors of today’s indigenous peoples.
It is not yet known to what extent the pressure from people who lead the fight against climate and biodiversity collapse, but who do not have a leading role in the negotiations, will influence the decisions of the Blue Zone. There, discussions continue about what should have been decided at the first COP.
Criticism is necessary, but always with the caveat that it would be worse if there were no debate or if multilateralism disappeared completely. Then we would be in the hands of the far right, of those who lie that the planet is not warming so they can continue to profit from it. But it is legitimate to say that it is little, very little compared to the acceleration of the collapse.
The UN alien ship is surrounded in this COP like never before. And these natives learned from their ancestors: be very careful with caravels.
