On January 11, the Salvadoran government under President Nayib Bukele ordered the arrest of five prominent anti-mining activists and water defenders from the north of the country. Social organizations around the world have taken notice. More than 250 organizations from countries across the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia signed a statement calling for the government to drop the charges.

A coordinated movement between Indigenous peoples, settler environmentalists, organized labour, and many others is the precise opposite of an apocalyptic scenario. We think it’s the one thing that could bring us back from our current slide into climate collapse, colonial genocide, and extreme inequality, and towards a better world where we live in balance with land and life.

The imposition of patented transgenic seeds onto rural communities has had a catastrophic impact on human livelihoods and biodiversity protection. In many countries, seeds have traditionally been the collective property of farmers—however, these farmers’ right to control their own seed supply is being attacked by corporate forces which have captured capitalist states around the world.

Rachel Carson gave us a vivid and compelling description of the barren world that the agrochemical industry was creating. But hidden within that was a clear analysis of why it was happening: the inherent drive to accumulation within capitalism and the willingness of corporations and capitalists to use every tool available to them, including the state itself, to create markets and grow profit.

As Afghanistan struggles to manage the manifold social and economic crises resulting from decades of war and subsequent Western sanctions, the Canadian government is still preventing charities from delivering much-needed shipments of food and medical aid to the country’s suffering population. Today, a staggering 95 percent of Afghans are not getting enough to eat.

Millions of dollars in funding for biodiversity preservation, conservation projects, and “nature-based solutions” have been announced at COP15 by states and philanthropic foundations alike. Yet as business delegates emphasized changing consumer behaviour as a critical condition of meeting lofty targets, a sliver of the market driving energy demand reflects a convoluted picture.

The UN itself has condemned Canada’s treatment of Indigenous land defenders and called on the government to stop criminalizing their activities in defence of Indigenous cultures and ecological integrity. These actions are especially important to consider in the midst of COP15, as Indigenous territories account for roughly 22 percent of the world’s land but hold 80 percent of its biodiversity.

The Tory regime in Ontario is very much a sign of the times. Earlier conservative notions of relative compromise and of the need to restrain, to a limited degree, the worst instincts of capitalists have been set aside. There is now only reckless indifference and a no-holds barred “open for business” ideology fixated on immediate returns with scant regard for longer-term consequences.

Barrick Gold continues to benefit from the silence of local and regional authorities in Argentina and Canada, who are taking no action to contain or remediate the harm committed from the spills. Despite this pattern of environmental harm and a history of hiding the spills from those most affected, the company is expanding the mine to extend its life another 10 years.

The administration of leftist Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wants to establish a new Federal Police unit focused on deterring environmental crimes. While such offences are currently addressed by the Federal Police’s organized crime department, creating a new unit would show a sense of priority and a break from the previous government.