A Privileged Fight

By: Maria Juliana Duque

Click here for the Spanish Version

Although the climate situation in Colombia is well known, there’s still a lot of layers to uncover that aren’t only environmentally related. We interviewed 19-year-old climate activist Emiliana Rickenmann, who grew up in Colombia, to give us a little background and her perspective on how the climate crisis in Colombia goes beyond environmental action. Rickenmann is part of Fridays For Future Bogotá and FFF Colombia, Latinas for Climate, and Climate Strike Switzerland.

Do you think activism in Colombia is accessible and/or secure? Why?

I think you have to see it from two points of view. Being a social leader isn’t the same as being an activist and I think that’s where the misconceptions begin. Most activists in the country are young people, who belong to groups like Fridays for Future. Most of them live in cities, have access to education and are very privileged in general as they aren’t in dangerous living situations.

On the other hand, there are social leaders, who are the ones living in conflict zones and are the ones to experience the direct consequences/violence of the problem they are advocating for. They are fighting on the daily against those who consider them as threats such as big enterprises, government officials and paramilitary groups. These factors make it more dangerous overal for them to pursue the advocacy of different issues, as the government also doesn’t offer any kind of protection or support. They also normally live in really secluded areas where it’s difficult to identify whether they are in danger or not.

I think privilege also plays a big role in the accessibility and security of activists. It’s a really repeated argument, but you need to be constantly checking your privilege, especially if you live in cities, as they are relatively more secure than other areas with less government presence.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t consider activism to be secure, Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries for social leaders as of now, and government negligence doesn’t help to tackle this issue either. We are still missing a long way to guarantee safe advocacy for everyone.

What objectives have you seen the climate movement aim towards to from your personal experience?

On a first instance, I think one of the biggest objectives is making more of a collective change, rather than an individual one. With collective change, I mean kinds of campaigns and manifestations aimed towards enterprises, the government, and more (the ones that are really causing a big impact, environmentally speaking). Because although a lot of the “higher ups” in the government, businesses, etc think that the climate crisis is something left for the future, this future is very near and their help is necessary for change towards a more sustainable life.

Another important objective is to continue to raise our voices and advocate, as we are the generation that’s breaking the stigma that we are just children, and we don’t have a clue about life or anything that surrounds us. We are people who have really strong and opinionated voices that need a bit of motivation and support to express themselves. And our efforts as limited as they might be, are really valid because we are trying to do even the smallest change.

What do you think about the way the Colombian government is handling the climate crisis?

Although we see a lot of these environmental campaigns and “greener” opportunities, the government tends to speak a lot and not do much in terms of tangible actions. There are a lot of loopholes and gaps that need to be addressed by them. The most heard example is the Escazu Agreement and its one of the most important ones in Colombia in my opinion. This agreement covered important topics such as the protection and security of activists and the government was actually openly against ratifying it. Their “justification” was that we already had more than enough tools/laws to protect social leaders and the environment. But none of the so mentioned are working.

Not only the lack of action is damaging, but also the amount of projects they have in progress that could cause huge damage to the biodiversity, like ports in the region of Choco and El Caribe, deforestation in the Amazon, illegal mining, weak legislations to help reduce greenhouse gases emissions and a list that could go on.

Officials always mention how we are pioneers on green technology and agreements and other things but what we really see is a whole different reality.

How is the climate crisis affecting Colombia from your experience?

We can’t really point to a main problem, as since Colombia is so diverse, different populations may face different environmental problems. Of course the most vulnerable and underrepresented populations will be the most affected ones because of the climate crisis.

In cities/more urban areas, the consequences are minimal and not so noticeable compared to other places that are more secluded and have slim to none contact. For example, the island of Providencia, was severely affected because of the strong hurricane that came on November of last year. They weren’t prepared for a hurricane of that magnitude, as rain patterns were predicted to be different. The island was almost destroyed while the most cities received was a lot of rain. In no way I’m invalidating problems cities may face, because they exist, but we always have to value very objectively the magnitude of these.

The climate crisis also bring a lot of social inequality. For us to understand the magnitude, we need to take into account the different ethnicities present. Let’s take indigenous communities as an example, as they are one of the minorities present here. Because of their different way of living and perceiving things, they have a different way of handling the climate crisis too. They have been one of the groups who have had the most care towards the environment because of their culture and perspective, nature is really sacred to them. Sadly, these intentions don’t correlate to politician’s interests, and we have seen how they are being assassinated and treated with everything but respect. Their territories are being invaded and destroyed, while they should be respected and taken care of.

The prime example of this is how the Sierra Nevada territory, one of the most sacred for them, is being invaded without their permission. They have a sacred line delimiting it, which has been present for generations and enterprises are disrespecting that, going and building without their permission or consent. Projects like the Port Taganga ignore this sacred line and contributes to even more destruction.

There is also a collective called the Minga Indigena, which helps these indigenous people to mobilize and protest for all the violations different organisms are committing against them. The majority of the time they organize peaceful protests and even made an appointment to talk to the president. But as I mentioned before, the government just doesn’t comply. They are attacked at protests and the president never pronounced himself regarding this important matter. We can really see the hypocrisy in all of this as one of his main campaign goals was to listen to minorities, but he just keeps ignoring the issues and their demands. In the end, it’s always the minorities and most vulnerable people affected by this lack of action and hypocrisy.

I think it gets to a point where you don’t know what else to do, as petitions, sharing news and even protesting seems useless if the government just refuses to listen and punishes those who try and raise their voices. They are always present to avoid the topic or defend themselves with really ignorant arguments that cause even more harm. It’s so hard to think of a way to finally make them react and do something.

Talking more from an educational aspect, I feel we still have a long way regarding awareness and empathy on these issues. There’s a lot of people who since this doesn’t affect them directly, they just ignore it. They refuse to see climate change as a threat, but it is there, and it is already damaging us tremendously. I really can’t understand how they are unable to see this as important, what would someone win inventing climate change?

Another “trend” I’ve also seen is people, specially politicians, talking about the climate crisis in economic terms rather than impacted human lives. This just goes to show how little they actually care and just look for chances to “consolidate” their power and economics.

What motivated you to get into activism?

Since I was little, I leaned more into the animal part, but that was also deeply linked to climate change. It was almost impossible not doing anything after watching all the news and statistics about climate change, specially having the privilege of living in a secure city. I wanted this privilege to raise my voice because it was frustrating to see the lack of action. I truly believe this should be enough for everyone to become an activist, because it’s our future what’s in the stakes.

As I mentioned before, I still can’t believe how there’s still people who don’t care about it and just ignore it or that something is going to come out of nowhere and safe them without them doing any effort. That isn’t even close to possible, I wanted to really do something and take action.

Do you have any advice/message for others that may want to get into activism?

Every voice matters. I see a lot of people saying that their sole presence isn’t enough, but I think that’s not true at all. We need a real uprising, a lot of people talking about the issues so its more noticeable and impactful. We all need to speak up and be activists in our own type of way.

You should always check your privilege too. Even if I’m speaking from the perspective of a less privileged country, I’m still among the few privileged people on it. And I know for experience that there are more people and communities who not only have different experiences to mine, but different stories and perspectives that are so valuable and have to be taken into account. Even if we live in the same country, there are a lot of things I haven’t experimented and people who have been more directly affected than me.

With this also comes the need to constantly check on others realities, as there may be a person who could share an experience in a determinate space that would be more fitting for their experience than for mine. But we still need almost every voice, they are all important as I said.

I motivate other people to this too because I’ve seen activism is really centered on the US and Europe, but we are missing fresh perspectives and perspectives that have actually been affected directly and have witnessed these consequences of the climate crisis.

Emiliana is currently located in Switzerland studying Medicine, but continues to help on climate change awareness there and in Colombia. Her replies were really insightful, and I agree a 100% with her.

This interview may be of help for others to understand the magnitude of the climate crisis on Colombia, but don’t hesitate to do more individual research and connect with other activists/organizations here and in other countries to gain a deeper understanding.

In Emiliana’s words: “We need more voices and people who truly care about the environment to join and help change things”.

Activist Featured

Emiliana Rickenmann

• Instagram: @emilianarickenmann
• Twitter: @EmilianaRM

Author

Maria Juliana Duque

• Instagram: @mariajulianaduques
• Twitter: @mariajulianads
• Email for further inquiries: maria@earthuprising.org

Earth Uprising is a global, youth-led non-profit organization focused on climate education, climate advocacy, and youth mobilization. Through its strong network of activists from all around the world, partnerships with groups, and local, national, and international campaigns and actions, it aims to bring attention to and spur action based on the latest science regarding the climate crisis. Earth Uprising provides the tools, resources, and connections young people need in order to take direct action in their own communities.

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