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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/22/inter-american-court-climate-hearing-hear-from-victims-barbados>
"Julian Medina comes from a long line of fishers in the north of Colombia’s
Gulf of Morrosquillo who use small-scale and often traditional methods to catch
species such as mackerel, tuna and cojinúa.
Medina went into business as a young man but was drawn back to his roots, and
ended up leading a fishing organisation. For years he has campaigned against
the encroachment of fossil fuel companies, pollution and overfishing, which are
destroying the gulf’s delicate ecosystem and people’s livelihoods.
He says there have been huge declines in the amount of fish he and others can
catch – 70% in the past decade – leading to widespread hunger in an already
poor region. “We are now getting fish below the minimum size, which are the
ones that could have provided us with security in the future.”
Medina is angry at the fossil fuel companies that are taking over part of the
coast and have caused oil spills, and angry at the authorities that license
them and undermine community attempts to restore mangrove forests. He is also
deeply concerned about how warming water is bleaching the coral reefs through
which his prey swims.
“We see how industrial activity is affecting our entire ecosystem,” he says.
“But we also know that climate change is affecting our environment. It is a
struggle and we are trying to make it visible in order to be heard.”
Medina will be telling his story this week to a panel of judges in Barbados
during the first part of a historic hearing on climate change by the
inter-American court of human rights.
The inquiry was instigated by Colombia and Chile, which together asked the
court to set out what legal responsibilities states have to tackle climate
change and to stop it breaching people’s human rights."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
