Climate Crisis: Indigenous Influencers and Their Chances to Save the World

80 percent of the biodiversity of our planet is protected by indigenous peoples.

This is remarkable in three ways.

Because indigenous people live in regions of the world that have so far been spared from civilization, but not from climate change - regardless of whether it is in areas in America or Asia.

At the same time, many of the peoples living there have to defend themselves against economic interests that threaten their natural areas.

And with it their sometimes millennia-old, sustainable way of life, which gets by without overproduction, exploitation or waste generation.

At the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow, many indigenous activists pointed out that this gives them a natural leadership role in the fight against climate change and that the civilized world can learn a lot from them.

In the meantime, indigenous influencers also advertise their culture on social networks and try to activate the global community in this way.

It is the case around the world that indigenous protests currently have momentum, for various reasons,” says Nicola Abé, Brazil correspondent for the SPIEGEL project “Global Society”. “One of them is of course that the interests of indigenous peoples and the interests of the environmental movement overlap and that the whole environment and climate movement has become more important «.

more on the subject

• Worldwide protests: "It is very attractive for politicians to present indigenous people" By Nicola Abé, São Paulo

• World food and climate crisis: "We can learn a lot from indigenous people" By Nicola Abé, São Paulo

• Young indigenous influencers in Brazil: she wears a bikini on Insta, she becomes political on TwitterBy Nicola Abé, São Paulo

More than 1,000 climate activists have been murdered since the Paris Agreement in 2016, 227 last year alone - and half of the victims came from indigenous communities. In many countries, indigenous people are still not treated as equals in society, and the murders of them are persecuted and investigated less often. Indigenous influencers could also make a difference for the status of many peoples. But the increasing presence on Instagram and other image-based platforms - just like the appearances of indigenous activists in traditional costume - also has negative sides.

"It's just very attractive and you can show as a politician, but also as a media, how much diversity you allow, that you hear and represent indigenous voices," explains Nicola in this podcast episode, "which of course not yet means that their concerns are taken seriously and that changes really happen «.

In this episode of "Eight Billion" you will hear how great the influence of indigenous influencers really is, why copyright is a problem and whether sustainable concepts by indigenous peoples also work globally.

You can hear the current episode here: