According to the United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, the world is “on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.” It is not only the hell of human lives and species lost amid climate chaos, but also the hell of mental ill-health from what world health expert Dr Lynne Friedli has described as “economic growth at the cost of societal recession”: in too many situations, we are putting financial gain ahead of communities and nature.
Indigenous leaders are some of the clearest voices recognising that it can’t be business as usual. As they stand, Western laws are inadequate to the task of preventing climate change and ensuring protection of Indigenous sacred sites and the cultural, spiritual, environmental, social and World Heritage values of these unique places.
But the solutions are right before our eyes. If we are to survive, we need to understand how different systems work together; and the relative roles and responsibilities of participants in integrated systems. Those include biological systems, such as ecosystems, but also human systems, such as law.
