Hundreds of Native Americans and supporters protested the Dakota Access Pipeline at Lafayette Park in front of the White House on October 12, 2021, in Washington D.C.Hundreds of Native Americans and supporters protested the Dakota Access Pipeline at Lafayette Park in front of the White House on October 12, 2021, in Washington D.C.Human activity in a profit-driven world divided by nation-states and those who have rights and those who don’t is the primary driver of climate change.
These victories for our planet are more than enough proof that activism pays off and should be an acute reminder that the kind of transformational change we need will not start at the top. In 2018, the climate protest of a 15-year-old Swedish student captured the imagination of her own country and eventually “aroused the world,” to use the words of British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough.