The climate crisis is one of the most serious problems we face. The United Nations, World Bank and other institutions use “disaster capitalism” to advance market-based climate mitigation strategies creating new business opportunities for large corporations. These schemes do nothing for the climate—but rather promote and prolong the dominant development model that is unjust, immoral, and deadly.
Langelle recently returned from of an investigation in Chiapas, Mexico looking into and documenting impacts resulting from “development” implemented through market-based climate mitigation schemes. The investigation found a complex web of economic development projects being imposed on campesino and indigenous communities without free, prior, and informed consent. One example is a renewed government effort to expand Protected Areas while relocating communities within the Lacandon Jungle, in order to generate carbon credits to be sold to California companies. This effort coincides with a long history of conflicts over land, and counterinsurgency campaigns aimed at the self-determination struggles of many indigenous peoples in the region for their economic, social and cultural development (liberation).
Turning land, life, and livelihoods into market commodities for the benefit of global elites – continues to be antithetical to buen vivir: life in harmony between humans, communities and the natural environment—devoid of commodification.
