Name? Maristela Clediane Uapa Arara
Westphalian identity? Brazilian (but self-identifies as Arara-Karo)
Age? 14
Why is she in the news? The BBC interviewed her as part of an investigative report on the effects of Amazonian deforestation. She deals with this on a daily basis, being part of the indigenous Arara-Karo Tribe.
Why do we care? It is easy to talk about global challenges in the abstract, especially when they don’t seem to directly affect you personally. Climate change and deforestation are such issues. We are scared by the concept of climate change but also very much enjoyed the lovely Madrid sun today. Summer in February is brilliant. Except that it isn’t. For Maristela, deforestation directly endangers her (way of) life. In other words, she ruined a perfectly enjoyable sunny day. Shame on you, Maristela.
Why should you care? Let’s put it this way: Maristela is on the edge of a sinking island, and you’re only a little more inland at the centre of the island; both of you will drown soon, the only difference is a bit of time.
Who else cares? Well, many people, obviously. It’s not as if deforestation and climate change have not been in the news. The question is not “who”, but “by how much?” If you ask reasonable people “what are your main political concerns?”, this is likely to be at the top of the list. But if you actually look at what people prioritise in their daily lives, it very much isn’t.
Any further comments? We humans are terrible at dealing with conceptual, large scale threats. What you (yes, you, over there, staring at this screen!) do will have a negligible impact on climate change simply because there are eight billion other people on this planet, and we know it. So why forego that CO2 burn-fest we call “vacationing”? Be honest now, what did you worry more about today: climate change or putting on sufficient sunscreen? Ah, sorry, never mind; it obviously was Covid-19. Sigh, it’s almost as if we deserve to go extinct…
