Newsweek Discovers Indigenous People, Forgets Oil Execs Still Exist
Newsweek, in its recent opinion piece, heralds Indigenous communities as the valiant vanguard against the fossil fuel era in the Amazon. A truly inspiring vision—one that conveniently glosses over the relentless, state-sanctioned assault on these very communities and their ancestral lands by corporations like Petrobras and Chevron, often with the explicit backing of governments eager for resource
extraction. It's a lovely thought to imagine the "end of the fossil fuel era," but the bulldozers, lobbyists, and oil contracts are still very much active. While Indigenous resistance is undeniably vital, presenting it as though it's 'ending' an era without acknowledging the multi-billion dollar industries actively accelerating deforestation and extraction, sometimes violently, is less a hopeful
forecast and more a comforting bedtime story. How many headlines celebrating Indigenous efforts are published for every barrel of oil pumped, every forest clear-cut, every indigenous activist murdered? The question practically answers itself.