« I thought that if the white people could hear me, they would convince the government to not let the forest be destroyed… Now the gold miners stink up the forest with the fumes from their motors and the vapors from the gold and mercury that they burn together. Now we fear the gold miners’ malaria, which is also very fierce… The people of the forest’s breath of life are fragile in the face of these xawara epidemic fumes. If we all die, no one will be able to compensate for the value of our dead. The white people’s money and merchandise will not bring them back down among us! And the devastated forest will never be able to be restored either, it will be lost for all time. » – Yanomami spokesman and shaman Davi Kopenawa
« Currently, companies and governments can destroy nature with impunity, and we can only try to restore it after the fact. But if ecocide becomes a crime, we can hold them accountable beforehand. » – Liliana Jauregui, Senior Expert in Environmental Justice who is working on a procedure to declare ecocide an international crime at the International Criminal Court (ICC), so that the destruction of nature can be fought through law. Their goal is to make ecocide a crime, just like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This way, those responsible can be held to account for the destruction of ecosystems.
This issue is of paramount importance to indigenous communities who have an ancestral connection to nature; rivers and forests, which are too often under pressure from extractive industries like gold and diamonds. Indigenous communities and environmental defenders risk their lives to stand up for nature, which they – and all of us – depend on.


Yanomami holding the cremated remains of their dead after their family was slaughtered by gold miners in the community of Haximu / « Xawara epidemic smoke killing a Yanomami community » – drawing on paper – Anoami Yanomami
Gold extraction: Tens of thousands of rainforest trees must be uprooted, hundreds of tons of soil mined and mixed with dozens of tons of toxic environmental pollutants that contaminate indigenous land and water sources in order to extract 1 1/2 grams of gold per ton of polluted soil for that one special gold ring, item of gold jewelry, gold watch or gold accessory…
PLEASE DO NOT BUY GOLD FOR GIFTS!
PLEASE DON’T BUY OR WEAR GOLD!
It’s up to us to choose a way to adorn and decorate ourselves that doesn’t destroy forests and the lives of other people!
Please LISTEN TO THE YANOMAMI SHAMAN’S MESSAGE:
https://barbara-navarro.com/2020/11/20/listen-to-the-yanomami-shamans-message/
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: A Valentine’s Day Plea for Nature and a message from a Yanomami shaman — Barbara Crane Navarro – Tiny Life
Pingback: The Earth is not a commodity and we are All part of Nature | Barbara Crane Navarro