Who protects the planet protectors?

Txai Suruí came a long way to warn the world about the damage we’re doing to the planet. Earlier this month, the climate activist, who grew up in an indigenous community in the Amazon rainforest, addressed the UN climate conference in Glasgow. Her reward? An outpouring of online hate.

It didn’t take long for the abuse to begin. Not long after she spoke to world leaders, she was subject to an avalanche of hateful messages sent via social media. Among them, Txai told the BBC, were multiple death threats.

Sadly - and tellingly - Txai wasn’t surprised at this response. The 24-year-old, a member of the Paiter Suruí indigenous people, knew she risked receiving widespread abuse by making a heartfelt appeal to save the natural world. “I think I said the correct words,” she said. “Because they attacked me.”

Txai knows her experience is typical. For years, climate activists, many of them still minors, have been targets of disinformation campaigns designed to discredit them as criminal or extremist. There are also rape and death threats, aimed at scaring young climate activists into silence. 

Swedish teen Greta Thunberg has shown admirable resilience against years of hateful memes and ugly threats and abuse from around the world. And it’s not just Greta and Txai. Hate campaigns have targeted climate activists as young as 11 from across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa.

This summer, the UN published a report exploring how climate activists are being targeted worldwide with online disinformation campaigns. These are often coordinated and strategic, it found, and can be traced back to fossil fuel companies, financial institutions and in some cases, serving politicians. 

These tactics are in no way harmless. Frequently, messages are beset with misogynistic, racist, and ableist abuse. What's more, when echoed and amplified by politicians and businesses, they help create a climate which normalizes, enables, and justifies physical attacks. Too often, violence is the result. 

Some actors will go to extreme lengths to silence activists. Four climate activists have been killed every week on average since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, according to environmental NGO Global Witness. Last year was the deadliest year on record for climate activists, with 227 murdered worldwide.

These people, every one of them, died protecting the planet. A third of last year’s victims were indigenous people, despite only making up 5% of the world’s population. They were killed for defending forests, preserving rivers, coasts, and oceans. Few of the murders were investigated.

Against this backdrop it’s not surprising young activists are concerned. Txai says she’s worried not enough is being done to protect young people standing up for the planet. She’s right. Their voices have rejuvenated efforts to secure a sustainable future. We need them, and they deserve better than this.

It doesn't have to be this way. We can all help protect them. We can pressure leaders to end the culture of impunity that allows online hate campaigns to spiral into offline violence. We can speak out against hate when we see it, name and shame those that engage in it. We can make it unacceptable.

When it comes to climate change, we don’t have time to get distracted. Anyone brave enough to stand up for our planet deserves the support of decent people everywhere. We need them to keep speaking out in the face of threats and intimidation. None of them should stand alone.