“You cannot argue with the fact that our ocean fisheries are crashing. You cannot argue with the fact that we've lost 50% of the wildlife that was on the planet. You can't argue with the fact that we're losing rainforests, that rivers are being dammed. These are tangible things. Anybody that wants to argue with me on them, I'm like: Get on a plane, come with me. I'll grab them by the collar, walk them out into the Amazon and say, Prove me wrong now.”
It’s so much more than “climate change”.
The most biodiverse regions of the world are under threat. Beyond the models, the data, the papers and the Twitter spats, the world’s ecosystems are collapsing under the pressure of mankind’s interference, extraction and exploitation. The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, has been mined, plumbed and sawed for its resources to the extent it may soon become a carbon emitter as its systems begin to decay. Protecting it is vital in the fight against our own destruction. Paul Rosolie set out to do just that when he was 18 years old.
Paul is a conservationist, writer, speaker, filmmaker, protecting 55000+ acres of Amazonian habitat and wildlife Director of JungleKeepers and Tamandua Expeditions. His memoir, Mother of God, documents his years spent deep in the jungle fighting to save it. Paul joins me to discuss this and more. He reveals the gifts of the Amazon and the lessons to be learned from its inhabitants. He also explains the limitations of typical conservation efforts due to the pressures of our globalised financial system. Finally, he gives a vision for what conservation could be in the future—and a call to action for those who understand the depth of the emergency.
Protecting the Amazon | Paul Rosolie