Al Jazeera News marked the end of the decade by interviewing two activists: Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, cofounder of Earth Guardians, and Dr. Vandana Shiva, activist, author, founder of Navdanya and a member of our sister organization, Regeneration International’s steering committee.

The two activists may be worlds—and decades in age—apart, but they’re on the same page when it comes to defending Mother Earth against corporate crime and corruption.

Nineteen-year-old Martinez, who’s been campaigning against climate change since he was six years old, emphasizes the need to see Indigneous communities not just as victims of the climate crisis, but as integral to finding solutions because, as he says:

“Indigenous communities have carried the knowledge and wisdom of how to live in balance with nature and the planet for generations.”

Shiva agrees with Martinez that there’s no crisis more urgent than climate change. She blames the crisis on chemical-industrial fossil-fuel-based farming, and proposes this solution: ecological biodiverse farming.

Referring to Bolivia President Evo Morales’ historic Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, Shiva says “that’s the future, that’s the Green New Deal—to live better without fossil fuels, without chemicals, without poisons.

Watch the Al Jazerra News interviews with Vandana Shiva and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

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