8 http://www.earthislandjournal.org
talking points
TEMPERATURE GAUGEPolar Plunge
In January, British-South African
endurance swimmer and ocean
advocate Lewis Pugh went where no
human has gone before — and where
few would probably want to follow. He
swam one kilometer in nearly freezing
water in a subglacial river under the
Antarctic ice sheet. Pugh, 50, was in
the water for just over ten minutes.
If that doesn’t make you shiver,
this fact might: If the rapidly melting
“doomsday” Thwaites glacier, also
in East Antarctica, melts completely,
global sea levels are predicted to rise
by nearly 3 feet. Just a week after
Pugh’s swim, scientists were startled
by the discovery that water under the
glacier, one of the fastest melting in the
world, was two degrees above freezing
temperature. This “warm” water could
further speed up the glacial melting
process.
Pugh took the plunge to draw
attention to our climate emergency.
He’s also pushing for the creation of
a marine protected area in the region,
which, as he says, “will protect this
last wilderness from the industrial
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oceans of the world, and crucially
make this region more resilient to the
climate crisis.”FRONTLINESNightmare
InitiativeBrazilian President Jair
Bolsonaro has long been saying
he planned to open Indigenous
reserves to development. In
January, he submitted a bill to
Congress that would do just
that. As Mongabay reports, the
legislation, if passed, would
permit mining, oil and gas
exploration, new dam projects,
tourism, cattle ranching, and
agriculture in protected areas
where they’ve been prohibited
for decades.
“The Indian is a human
being exactly like us,”
Bolsonaro said. Because of
that, he added, they will
welcome development on
their land. Indigenous popula-
tions would still have a right
to consultation, but in most
cases would have no means to
reject development projects.
Bolsonaro has described
the proposal as a “dream”
initiative.
Marco Santilli, a former
head of Brazil’s Indigenous
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will “not promote the economic
development of the Indians,
but guarantee the exploitation
by third parties of their natural
resources,” he says. “It would
encourage Indians to live from
royalties while watching the
dispossession of their lands.”Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh swam one kilometer in an East Antarctic subglacial river
in January to draw attention to our climate emergency.
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