COP28: Rubber-Stamping the Collapse of Civilization
A few weeks ago, a majestic waterway that flows and meanders through the jungle before feeding the most majestic of all rivers, the Amazon, was rapidly drying up. As the Rio Negro — itself one of the most voluminous rivers in the world — diminished during a particularly dry spell, something extraordinary emerged on its newly revealed riverbanks. With the water receding to record levels, rock carvings of human faces that were made perhaps 2,000 years ago appeared.
These faces were the work of the inhabitants of a long-lost pre-Columbian Indigenous village. They represent the culture of a society that remains largely mysterious to us and one which has long been lost to the sands of time. The time-travelling faces should remind us that nothing can last forever, that societies rise and fall and that, ultimately, we are all only passing through. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Our own civilization will not exist in perpetuity. One day it too will be gone — perhaps not for thousands of years but perhaps much sooner than that. Indeed, the very same drought that unveiled the stone etchings on the banks of the Rio Negro is now endangering the modern day inhabitants of the region. With the levels of the river reaching an all-time low, locals struggled to access much needed supplies such as medicine and food, and some urban centers even found…
