WARNING: WALL STREET EYES AFRICAN LAND

After making themselves rich over centuries of environmental pollution, the West, through figures like Bill Gates, is now making the Global South pay. Despite not benefiting from industrialisation, regions like India and Africa are targets for carbon offsets, a false solution that gate-keeps emissions for the wealthy.

Putting it simply, under the Paris Climate Agreement, countries have pledged to go net zero. And a country or company that wants to off-set its pollution can invest in green projects, like forests, giving it so-called ‘carbon credits’. There’s no better place than Africa, home to crucial wildlife havens and biodiversity hotspots. The result is that multinationals are buying up land on our continent, to off-set their own emissions elsewhere.

It’s a scam, and it’s exposed in this one-minute video by Dr. Vandana Shiva, who founded Navdanya, an Indian environmental NGO.
She describes the scheme as a bid by Wall Street to commodify nature. It’s a concept alien and hostile to African communities that treat land and the environment with reverence.

An even worse aspect of the gatekeeping is denying the Global South the opportunity to use its resources to develop. While the Global North industrialised without restrictions such as carbon credits, the Global South today faces an uphill task, with no form of environmental justice such as technology sharing or reparations.

Have a listen to Dr Shiva and let us know what you think.

credit to @centerforfoodsafety