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Following this morning’s collaboration and the global call of action from APIB (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil) Extinction Rebellion is acting in solidarity to put a stop to investment in deforestation and land grabbing. The group held a protest in front of the St Vincent Street branch of Santander in Glasgow to denounce the Bank’s criminal complicity in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the climate emergency. Two members of the group lay in a ‘bloodbath’ to symbolise the destructive impacts of Santander’s investments. The group help banners reading ‘SANTANDER = BLOOD MONEY’ and ‘DEFUND DEFORESTATION, HONOUR OUR ENVIRONMENTAL DEBTS’. Others sprayed ‘blood money’ and ‘protect Amazon’ on the front of the building. 

According to a 2019 Amazon Watch report titled ‘Complicity in Destruction II’ as the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon provides 20% of our oxygen, houses 10% of the planet’s biodiversity, and helps stabilize the global climate. The world needs it to survive. None understand this better than the indigenous peoples and traditional communities who call it home, and are proven to be its best stewards.

In the last two years deforestation has damaged the Amazon so badly that two large research studies recently found that it is emitting more greenhouse gases than it can store. This is a terrifying indication that we could soon lose the world’s largest carbon sink, which could tip us into a full-blown climate catastrophe.

The Complicity in Destruction II report shows that Santander is the second largest US or EU bank involved in providing credit for the major Brazilian beef exporters. [1]

Sonia Guajajara, Executive Coordinator of APIB, said: “It is necessary to denounce to the world that Bolsonaro is not only a threat to Brazilians. He is a global threat because of his policies of destruction. We, the indigenous peoples, continue to fight against a genocide and an ongoing ecocide. But that struggle cannot be only of indigenous peoples, it must be everyone’s struggle. We are making complaints in all international instances, including before the International Criminal Court. At Cop26 we are here to affirm that there are no solutions for the climate crisis without indigenous peoples and our territories.”

Notes to editors

[1] https://amazonwatch.org/news/2019/0425-complicity-in-destruction-2

ABOUT EXTINCTION REBELLION

Time has almost entirely run out to address the ecological crisis which is upon us, including the 6th mass species extinction, global pollution, and increasingly rapid climate change. If urgent and radical action isn’t taken, we’re heading towards 4˚C warming, and the societal collapse and mass loss of life that that implies. The younger generation, racially marginalised communities and the Global South are on the front-line. No-one will escape the devastating impacts.

Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.

Extinction Rebellion’s key demands are:

1. Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
2. Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
3. Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

Links:
What Emergency? | Extinction Rebellion in Numbers |This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook