by Mazin Qumsiyeh
Statement from the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability for those convening for COP30 in Brazil. The conference of parties (COP) signatories to the Paris accords on climate change will hold its 30th annual meeting in Belem, Brazil. Our friend Greta Thunberg in 2021 mocked so-called world leaders for their empty words (bla bla bla) in the face of a climate emergency. We should admit that all their talk and their targets of “net zero” and “limit of 1.5 degrees” and “green economies” clearly failed. As indigenous oppressed people try to point out at these conferences repeatedly, the failure stems from misdiagnosis. The problem lies in our systems of capitalism that are unchecked, consumerism, and “market based solutions”. Countries that are more successful are essentially socialist (like the Scandinavian countries) while those that espouse an unchecked market economy stretching from the United States to Australia and passing by the gulf monarchies have caused devastation and wars and climate catastrophe. The global uprising that is led by groups like extinction rebellion (https://rebellion.global/) which we are a part of was energized by the ecocide and genocide in places like the Gaza Strip and Sudan. We believe that those convening for the 30th time have a better opportunity to succeed because they are meeting in Brazil (a large state & leader in the BRICS group of countries). People managed to end the neo-liberal US supported the Amazon-wrecking government of Bolsonaro and they must end the elite rule in the US, UK, Palestine and the Gulf. We are the many, the elites are the few. We can do it. It is an existential struggle. We ask the global community to get knowledge* on what is going on, disseminate the knowledge and act to stop the ecocide. This can also be by volunteering with us and with others**
* Here is a short video/cartoon about our planet and what it faces: https://youtu.be/WfGMYdalClU
and testimony on the ecocide for the Gaza tribunal https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2025/10/testimony-for-gaza-tribunal.html
and read papers like these:
Qumsiyeh, M. B. (2024). Impact of Israeli military activities on the environment
International Journal of Environmental Studies, 81(2), 977-992.
Yin, H., Eklund, L., Habash, D., Qumsiyeh, M. B., & Van Den Hoek, J. (2025). Evaluating war-induced damage to agricultural land in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 using PlanetScope and SkySat imagery
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666017225000057?via%3Dihub>.
Science of Remote Sensing. Vol. 11: Article 100199 Qumsiyeh, MB (2025) Ecocide and Resistance in Palestine. The Ecologist 2 Sept. 2025
https://theecologist.org/2025/sep/02/ecocide-and-resistance-palestine
** http://palestinenature.org/vollunteer
Volunteers On Palestinian Farms Are More Valuable—and Scarce—Than Ever | Atmos
Also read
The global importance of the Palestinian resistance
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