#txai surui

[Image description: Txai Suruí.]

It was the kind of spotlight associated with a certain other young climate activist: A hall full of world leaders and a speaking slot preceding the secretary general of the United Nations.

The woman in the spotlight was not Greta Thunberg, but Txai Suruí, a 24-year-old Indigenous climate activist from Brazil, making her first appearance on the world stage. On the opening day of the global climate summit in Glasgow, she made an eloquent appeal drawing attention to the devastating deforestation of the Amazon.

“The Earth is speaking,” Ms. Suruí said. “She tells us that we have no more time.”

“The animals are disappearing,” she added. “The rivers are dying, and our plants don’t flower like they did before.”

Ms. Suruí told the heads of state in the audience that they were “closing your eyes to reality” and their timetables for reducing carbon emissions and scaling back the use of fossil fuels were inadequate.

“It’s not 2030 or 2050,” she said. “It’s now.”

‘A terra está falando, não temos mais tempo’, declara ativista indígena na COP26

MANAUS – A ativista indígena de Rondônia Txaí Suruí, de 24 anos, discursou nesta segunda-feira, 1º, na abertura da 26ª Conferência sobre Mudanças Climáticas (COP26), em Glasgow, Escócia. A indígena faz parte de uma delegação formada por cerca de 40 lideranças de povos tradicionais e durante o discurso, foi dura ao cobrar dos países ações rápidas e concretas voltadas para a proteção dos povos…

[Image description: Txai Surui.]

Txai Surui is the founder of the Indigenous Youth movement in her home state of Rondonia in Brazil.

Inspired by her parents, the 24-year-old became a climate activist at an early age and campaigned against deforestation all over the world - a huge topic for Brazilians as their Amazon rainforest is currently under threat.

Txai is part of the WWF-Brazil Deliberative Council and is training to be an environmental lawyer.

Txai has spoken to world leaders about the impacts of climate change at the COP26 conference.

"The Earth is speaking. She tells us that we have no more time," she said during her speech which saw leader's give her a standing ovation.

However, not everyone was happy with the message the climate activist shared.

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro accused Txai and other indigenous groups speaking at the conference of attacking Brazil.

The Brazilian government will be targeted by United Nations investigators after allegations that indigenous leaders were threatened during COP26, the high-stakes climate summit held by the UN last year in Glasgow. Brazil’s official participation in the event was overshadowed by passionate speeches made by indigenous critics of Jair Bolsonaro.

Per website UOL, a UN report acknowledges that Alessandra Korap Munduruku — an indigenous activist from the southern Amazon — received threats and was verbally attacked by an unidentified man after her involvement in COP26. Intimidation only became worse after she returned to Brazil: her house’s electricity was cut off, then invaded, ransacked, and vandalized.

Indigenous Brazilian activist Txai Suruí's full speech at COP26