Although uninvited, Indigenous leaders came to the COP30 climate summit being held in Belem, Brazil anyway. They stormed a meeting that has become infamous for its vacuous speeches, empty policy promises and martini-sipping fossil fuel lobbyists. And they were met with the full force of the state. Two Brazilian navy vessels escorted a flotilla carrying Indigenous leaders and environmental activists from Belem’s Guajara Bay.

There is an irony of inviting the world’s biggest polluter, the United States, to a conference on climate change. And then being snubbed by it. All while not inviting the guardians of the planet’s lungs. And then attacking them for daring to show up anyway.

Despite this, their message remains the only coherent one. That the wealthy and powerful are destroying the sacred living loam of this earth. Our biosphere. The only home human beings have ever known. That logging, mining, farming and fossil fuel extraction in the forests of the planet, especially the Amazon rainforest, are contributing to a climate that becomes more unstable and angrier by the year. That the genocidal project of capitalist and colonial exploitation and land theft is driving our omnicidal trajectory.

Just last month, scientists issued another dire warning, adding to a litany of critical tipping points. The besieged, carbon absorbing Amazon rainforest may be transformed into a savannah in our lifetime. This would be disastrous for humanity and countless species as the global temperature is predicted to exceed 1.5c around 2030, far earlier than previously estimated.

This is the first time the COP has been held this close to the Amazon. But despite this historic proximity, it continues to close its doors to the forest’s inhabitants and guardians. And this tragic irony is one we will all come to regret.

Kenn Orfanos, November 2025