Nemonte  Nenquimo， 她今年37歲，是亞馬遜森林的護衛者. 她領導了一場原住民運動和法律訴訟，最終法院做出裁決，保護500，000英畝的亞馬遜雨林和瓦歐拉尼領地免遭石油開采. 

今年高盛環境獎的獲得者將在4月29號於舊金山宣布， 希望她是獲得者. 

最近一期的Time 4/8/2024有一篇她寫的文章，對環境，對生活的想法，讓人耳目一新. 

‘Mother Earth will not be saved. She does not need you or anyone to save her. She demands respect. And she will punish humanity for failing to give it. And yet, time and again, people in position of governmental and industrial power refuse to do so; they insist on destruction.’

地球母親不會被拯救，她不需要你或任何人來拯救她. 她要求尊重. 她將懲罰未能做到這一點的人類. 然而，身居政府和工業權力職位的人們一次又一次拒絕這樣做；他們堅持破壞.

‘We know not to use more than we need.’

我們知道不要使用超過需要的東西. 

可現實是什麽情況呢？ 奢侈品牌為維持高價，寧願燒掉成堆的衣物.  據說，目前地球上有的衣服，己經夠幾代人穿了，可還在大量生產. 中國人多地少，可還是建造了遠遠超出需求的房子.  人們的消費觀，市場的導向，應該從哲學高度加以指導，改變. 

’The forest is our grocer, our pharmacy, our hardware store, our theater, our gym, our park.’ ‘We know the plants and the birds in the way city dwellers know the names of streets and the logos of stores. ‘ 

森林是我們的雜貸店，我們的藥房，我們的五金店，我們的劇院，我們的健身房，我們的公園.  我們了解植物和鳥類，就象城市居民了解街道名稱和商店標誌一樣. 

字裏行間可以看到她對亞馬遜雨林的熱愛，對大自然的懂和理解. 

亞馬遜雨林是比最大的鑽石還要珍貴萬倍億倍的屬於人類的瑰寶. 

Earth does not need you or anyone to save it. Earth demands respect.

地球不是要你救的，你要尊敬地球. 

附原文: TIME April 8, 2024

On respecting the Amazon and what is owed to the planet

Someone recently asked me why it was important to protect the Amazon rainforest for oil drilling. The question made me angry. Can you imagine being questioned about the importance of protecting your home from being destroyed in a fire? Or about protecting your home, your extended family’s home, and all your people’s homes from demolition? Can you imagine being asked： Why is it important to protect your country from nuclear devastation?

Those questions seem absurd only when you take the existence of your home and your people for granted. Western civilization has always taken the destruction of my home and my people for granted. And now, this well-meaning question assumes that I must offer a defense of my existence. It also presents a false innocence about the asker’s complicity in the continued destruction of my home.

As a Waorani leader tasked with communicating beyond our territorial borders to safeguard our land, I often face questions like this. Answering is part of the resistance, and it is not easy. Yet, with Ecuador’s government now pushing to ignore our hard-won ban on oil drilling in one of our most biodiverse forests, it remains an urgent question to answer. What I ling for, and what the Amazon and Mother Earth demand, can be summed up in  what is missing in the questions and policies so often pointed at me and my people: Respect.

Why is it important to protect the Amazon rainforest from oil drilling?

We Waorani like to walk. When we need to think we head off walking in the forest. When we want to express our emotions, we walk and sing: our songs too are fruits of the forest.  Wherever we walkm we are in communication with everything around us. We know the plants and the birds in the way city dwellers know the names of streets and the logos of stores.  But street do not breathe and stores do not take flight.

The forest is our grocer, our pharmacy, our hardware store, out theater, our gym, our park. We cultivate our small orchards and walk the forest to hunt and to gather food, medi ine, tools, and beauty and art supplies.  Politicians and oil executives think that we are idiots, that we plod among the trees picking things up that look yummy. They say that we don’t even know the value of the resources beneath the ground.  But that is how they show their own ignorance.  The oil deep in the earth is the blood of our ancestors. And we know better than to dig up a grave.

Why pillage a grave when life is all around us? We don’t need oil. The forest is life itself.  We know which plants can heal and which songs to sing to ask permission for cutting them and using their cures.  We know that the petomo palm fruits in January and February and that its oil is excellent for maintain long, shiny hair and healthy skin.  We know that the monkeys and the tapirs time their reproductive cycles to coincide with fruit abundance.  We know that the peach palm makes the best spears. We know not to use more than we need.

The first Europeans to enter the Amazon wanted only gold and power.  They brought disease and murder.  It is no wonder that all their tales of adventure describe the forest as a site of danger.  I have had dreams of great dangers to come.  Unrestrained industrialization has poisoned the atmosphere.  Burning down the Amazon will accelerate climate change beyond a point of no return. Uncontrolled warming will imperil life on earth.

Mother Earth will not be saved.  She does not need you or anyone to save her.  She demands respect.  And she will punish humanity for failing to give it.  And yet, time and again, people in positions of governmental and industrial power refuse to do so; they insist on destruction.

They’ve had so many opportunities to respect us, and they’ve squandered them all. Just in recent years, Ecuador’s political class could have upheld indigenous peoples’ rights to free, prior, and informed consent- the right to decide what happens in their territories, as enshrined in international law by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of indigenous peoples.  But the didn’t. They made us fight.  In 2019, my people achieved a  historic legal victory protecting a half million acres of waorani territory, and setting a legal precedent to protect millions more. The government could have respected that court victory and complied with the ruling, but instead I, it has failed to respect it, and continues to have its eye on drilling oil from our lands.

They could have respected our demands to stop all oil drilling and pumping in Yasuni national park,

One of the most biodiverse places in the world, but they didn’t Again, they made us fight, this time joined by allies across the country. Just last year, the people of Ecuador again made history by voting in a national referendum to stop and permanently ban all oil exploitation in Yasuni. We won.  We should be celebrating and coordinating with people in other regions and othe countries to help devise strategies to protect their forests. Instead, we are forced to keep fighting: newly elected Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has called for an illegitimate ‘moratorium’ on complying ith the results of the referendum. 

Why can’t they respect their own laws? How many times do we have to use the tools of the civilization that want to destroy us, its courts and elections to stop their destruction?

Where is the rule of law when the rulers change the laws whenever they feel inconvenienced?  Is it really so much to ask for respect?

I often feel heart broken when I travel abroad to speak about our struggle. I see how many possessions and luxuries people have and how they only want more.  Their greed fuels the burning of the Amazon. Some people on those trips tell me I’m a hero. No, I’m not. I’m just trying to do something. This is resistance.

Why is it important to protect the Amazon from oil exploitation? My life, the lives of my family and people, our hoes, our culture, our language, the lives of myriad plant and animal species, many of which are endemic to the Amazon, the life of the forest itself, and the lives of millions of people, perhaps even yours all depend on it. Is that good enough?