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 which we are a part of was energized by the ecocideb 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, and testimony on the ecocide for the Gaza tribunal 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. Science of Remote Sensing. Vol. 11: Article 100199 Qumsiyeh, MB (2025) Ecocide and Resistance in Palestine. The Ecologist 2 Sept. 2025.
Volunteers On Palestinian Farms Are More Valuableand ScarceThan Ever
Now for other items
"The dying Western Civilization (or The West) has not learned a thing during its 500-years of failed attempts to subjugate the Global Majority: The elite or rulers may submit, but the people never surrender to the invading colonizers." Maung Zarni
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters. Antonio Gramsci
We are the many, you are the few [a song]
The US this year joined Israel to become the only two states (of 193) refusing to participate in the mandatory review of their human rights record by the UN Human Rights Council. [this needs no comment].
Elon Musk, the richest man on earth with nearly 500 BILLION in wealth (enough to end world hunger) and a racist white South African who was not shy about giving a Nazi salute is poised to become the first human "trillionaire" if more people buy Tesla cars! I do not know why as I wrote this, I thought of the East India Company and the opium wars.
UK Petition: No to government repression of peaceful demonstrators.
International People's Tribunal on the US-Backed Zionist Occupation's War of Forced Starvation and Ecocide in Palestine.
We remain focused on our people in Gaza. I have a family of a friend camped on the street that runs from Palestine square to Gaza port named Omar Al-Mukhtar Street. Imam Omar Al-Mukhtar was injured, captured and hanged publicly at age 73 by Italian fascists after he led the resistance to the colonization of Libya for some 20 years. A movie about him starring Anthony Quinn is worth (re)watching to see similarities of fascism and of resistance in both Palestine and Libya. His statements that "you cannot quell resistance- new generations will come and fight" and that "we will never surrender, we will win or we die" inspired generations and leaders from Izz ad-Din al Qassam in Palestine to Ahmed Ben Bella in Algeria. Struggles against colonization and oppression are well researched. As in all such struggles, the successes occur with dedicated good leadership and any failures are due to machinations of "divide and conquer" strategies and weaklings elevated by the colonial powers to rule as collaborationists. We see the latter in many so-called "leaders" (self appointed) in the Arab political elites now ruling in AbuDhabi to Ramallah to Rabat.
The indigenous people of Palestine warned that if you let what is happening to us go on, you will be next for colonialism and greed knows no borders. Now there is a militarization and occupation of US cities and even Israeli drones are being used to spy on Americans.
Israeli 972 magazine timeline & graphics of Gaza.
Systemic Israeli removal/theft of organs from Palestinian bodies.
The eyeWitness to Atrocities app lets you capture photos and videos with embedded metadata to verify their authenticity in court.
The genocide still goes on but remarkably, Hundreds of stories and movies, books and documentaries are coming out about Gaza by individuals livng throughthe genocide. Please search for and listen to Palestinian voices. Examples here, and a book by Eman Ali. and a young dentist who is working on a documentary. Hes still there. This young boxer was killed, but a documentary is being made about her short life.
Stay Humane, act, and keep hope and Palestine alive
Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability Bethlehem University Occupied Palestine
facebook pages Personal Institute
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