From the United States and Canada to France and Spain, from Japan to Morocco, India and Pakistan, the past few weeks have felt like living inside an oven. Western Europe endured its hottest June on record, and fiercest fires in July, with repeated heatwaves slamming France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. Early analyses suggest the late‑June 2026 European heatwave may have killed around 20,000 people in just one week, with more than 10,000 excess deaths recorded during that period, most of them among people over 65. In France alone, public health authorities later estimated more than 5,700 excess deaths during the historic June heatwave.

At the same time, countries already familiar with brutal summers are being pushed past human limits. In India, a 2026 study estimated that a single day of extreme heat causes about 3,400 excess deaths, and a five‑day heatwave nearly 30,000 additional deaths nationwide, with the heaviest burden on poorer, hotter states such as Uttar Pradesh. Pakistan and countries across the Persian Gulf are also enduring “too hot, too humid” conditions where the heat index reaches levels that make outdoor work and even short walks life‑threatening. Japan has declared recent heatwaves a “disaster”, with more than 10,000 people rushed to hospital for heatstroke in a single week.

Across North Africa, Morocco has faced back‑to‑back heatwaves on top of drought and water stress, with orange alerts and temperatures reaching 44 to 46°C in provinces from Marrakech and Beni Mellal to Laayoune and Dakhla, followed swiftly by forest fires.

This heat is not “just summer”. It is fossil‑fuelled climate breakdown, supercharged by a strong El Niño that is loading the dice for record temperatures and extreme weather. Whole regions are turning into tinderboxes as wildfires rip through dried‑out forests from Spain and Portugal to Greece, southern France and North Africa, forcing tens of thousands to flee, closing Tour de France stages to spectators and leaving tennis players at Roland Garros and footballers in the World Cup struggling to breathe and perform in dangerous heat.

What extreme heat is doing to people, food systems and ecosystems

Extreme heat does not only stress bodies. It also damages minds and sleep. When nights stay hot and humid, the body cannot cool down properly, core temperature stays high and people lose hours of sleep. Researchers found that across the whole globe, the average person has lost about 56 hours of sleep per year because of high temperatures over the last five years. On top of that, studies show that extreme heat can slow reaction times, worsen concentration and decision‑making and is linked to higher risks of anxiety, depression and other mental‑health problems, especially for older people and those already living with mental illness.

Heat is also damaging the systems we depend on. Extreme temperatures and drought are already jeopardising harvests and food security in many regions, while pushing key species and ecosystems towards collapse through mass coral bleaching, forest dieback, more frequent wildfires and hotter, more acidic oceans.

How to protect your body and home during extreme heat

When temperatures soar, the first priority is keeping people alive and safer where they are. The basics still matter. Drink water regularly, avoid alcohol, wear loose light clothing, rest in the shade and check on elderly neighbours, children, disabled people and anyone living alone. This advice lands very differently for someone in an air‑conditioned flat in Paris, a street vendor in Karachi, a farmer in Uttar Pradesh or a construction worker in Casablanca, so it must be adapted to real living conditions.

Fans can be powerful if used smartly. A fan blowing across a wet cloth, a shallow tray of ice or a damp bedsheet can cool air more effectively in dry heat. In very humid heat, fans work best when aimed to help sweat evaporate from bare skin. Simple tricks like placing a damp sheet in front of an open window at night, or sitting with feet in a bucket of cool water, can bring temperatures down a few crucial degrees.

People are also finding creative ways to cool homes on a low budget. In many countries, residents are painting windows with white chalk paint to reflect sunlight, and using emergency foil blankets on the outside of windows to bounce heat away while leaving a gap for air to flow. Grassroots guides in places like Morocco and India share similar hacks, from hanging light‑coloured sheets outside windows to building simple shade structures on rooftops.

For babies, children, older people and pets, small habits can be lifesaving. Cool (not ice cold) baths or showers, wet cloths on wrists, neck and ankles, avoiding hot pavements, never leaving anyone in a parked car, and rearranging sleep so people rest in the coolest room in the home all help. Whenever possible, people without safe homes need access to public cooling spaces.

Air conditioning can be life‑saving for vulnerable people during multi‑day heatwaves, especially in places where nights stay very hot. It should be used carefully, not set to extreme cold and combined with other cooling measures to reduce the strain on bodies and power systems. Shared cooled spaces and public cooling centres can protect more people than single units in a few homes.

Making cities liveable in a hotter world

People deserve protection from extreme heat and heat‑related health risks. That requires ambitious political decisions to adapt cities, upgrade housing and public spaces, and provide safe, accessible places to cool down. Many city governments are starting to combine climate mitigation, adaptation and action on energy poverty so that entire neighbourhoods can cope better with rising temperatures. This includes retrofitting housing with insulation, shading, ventilation and cool roofs to cut indoor temperatures by several degrees, especially in poorly built blocks and informal settlements.

Programmes in Spain, France and Germany show that renovating homes and social housing for energy efficiency can reduce winter bills and deadly summer heat, particularly when paired with rooftop solar and community energy. Yet many countries, including France, are far behind their renovation promises and targets, leaving millions of people in leaky, overheating homes. Energy efficiency also reduces dependence on climate‑wrecking fossil gas, which in some regions has helped fund Putin’s war machine.

Green infrastructure is just as important as pipes and concrete. Thermal imaging by Greenpeace groups in Madrid, Rome, London and Indian cities shows the same pattern. Streets and squares without trees or parks can be more than 10°C / 50°F hotter than nearby green areas, while vegetation and water features can lower surface temperatures by 15°C to 20°C / 59 to 68°F in some spots. Opening parks and public pools in evenings and weekends, planting trees along streets and around schools, restoring urban wetlands and rivers and reducing traffic all help cool cities and protect health. White or reflective roof coatings, from traditional lime washes in the Mediterranean to modern cool paints in cities like Ahmedabad, Los Angeles and Casablanca, are also proving cheap ways to cool entire districts, with big benefits for economically disadvantaged communities who often live in the hottest buildings.

New rules and public services for an age of extreme heat

As extreme heat becomes a regular threat, governments are starting to introduce “heat laws” and protections that should have existed years ago. Cities like Seville and Athens are naming and ranking heatwaves to trigger automatic emergency plans. Regions in Spain, Italy and the United States are introducing rules that stop outdoor work during the hottest hours or require employers to provide shade, rest, water and protective equipment.

Cooling centres in libraries, schools, mosques, churches and community halls are opening in cities from Paris to Bangkok, but coverage is often patchy and fails to reach the poorest neighbourhoods or people without transport. The World Health Organization and other health agencies call for heat‑health action plans that invest in public services, early warning systems and resilient power grids, with special focus on people who cannot simply work from home or escape to cooler regions.

In Morocco too, climate experts are calling for urgent changes to building rules, labour standards and public health planning so that extreme heat is treated as a permanent risk.

Everyday climate actions to cut emissions and reduce heat harm

Personal choices will not solve a crisis driven by fossil fuel companies and political inaction. They still matter, especially when they build pressure for systemic change. Eating more plant‑based food, wasting less, cutting unnecessary flights, shifting to public transport, walking and cycling and insulating homes where possible all help cut the fossil fuel demand that is driving extreme heat. This can still limit how brutal future heatwaves become.

These steps are stronger when combined with collective action. People are joining local campaigns for safe housing and green streets, supporting unions that push for heat protections, backing climate lawsuits and fossil fuel phase‑out plans and challenging the luxury emissions of the richest 1 percent whose private jets, superyachts and hyper‑consumption drive a huge share of climate chaos.

Stopping fossil‑fuelled heat at the source

“Drink water and stay inside” will never be enough in a world where heat is already killing roughly one person every minute and where extreme events like June – July 2026 are becoming the new normal. The most important heat protection is to stop burning coal, oil and gas as fast as possible and replace them with renewable, efficient energy systems that are fair for workers and communities.

This crisis is deeply unjust. The people dying first and hardest from heat in India, Pakistan, Morocco or the Persian Gulf countries did the least to cause it. A small group of rich countries and corporations burned most of the fossil fuels and still profit from them. A fair response means those who benefited most from coal, oil and gas, including the ultra‑rich whose emissions are off the scale, must pay for adaptation, loss and damage and a fast transition to renewables in every region.

That means no new fossil fuel projects, a rapid phaseout of existing oil, gas and coal, and major investment in solar, wind, storage, grids and efficiency, together with a just transition for workers and affected communities. It also means windfall taxes on fossil profits, climate damage payments, debt relief and real finance for adaptation, health systems and heat‑safe housing, instead of more subsidies for fossil fuels and industrial agribusiness.

Lots of the death and devastation we are seeing can still be prevented. We have reached a point where politics and policies quite literally shape who gets to live or die in a heatwave, and who is left to face it alone. 

Heat is political. Either fossil fuel companies keep cashing in while people collapse in overheated homes, or governments back better protected homes, greener cities, stronger public services and a fast, fair end to the fuels that are turning extreme heat into a mass‑casualty event.

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Looking back on the 2026 World Cup, it was undoubtedly an emotional roller coaster for fans. From fun and comradery at fan festivals, to loss and controversy, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of soccer hype, shwag and of course, lots of corporate advertising. We joined the festivities to let Dove – official personal care sponsor, whatever that means – know that if it really cared about men’s health like its ads suggest, it’s time to kick plastic out of its packaging. 

Unilever’s Dove brand used the World Cup to endlessly promote its Men + care products in a campaign about protecting men’s ‘sensitive parts’. Dove is always selling itself as a company that cares  – about ‘real beauty’, empowerment, and health. But its plastic-centred business model tells a different story. 

Billions of Dove branded plastic packaged products are produced every year, contributing to a growing public health emergency. Unilever is responsible for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic entering global markets, driving consequences on a global scale. As a top global plastic polluter according to brand audits conducted over several years, Unilever is a major contributor to the waste and pollution crisis. 

Plastic pollution is a public health issue at every stage. Plastics are made with thousands of chemicals, many of which are a concern to human health. Microplastics are being found nearly everywhere, including our bodies. The growing body of science on plastic and health make it hard to ignore the role that major consumer goods polluters are playing in our collective plastic burden.

Recent headlines about a possible connection between exposure to microplastics and/or plastic chemicals and impacts on sexual health and fertility have us thinking about…the package.  

Early studies reveal microplastics may be showing up in penile tissue and semen. Some plastic associated chemicals are capable of interfering with male hormone systems. A new study has identified how exposure to polyethylene microplastics could contribute to erectile dysfunction in mammals. With all the human suffering the plastic pollution crisis already causes, the prospect of plastic impacting sexual health is a striker’s kick in the balls. 

During quarter finals, as fans gathered at an event near the Brooklyn Bridge, Greenpeace USA lit up the bridge and the New York skyline with a message for World Cup fans: “Defend Your Balls. Dove, Kick Plastic Out.” As a trusted brand, we thought its customers should know that Dove is not only a top sponsor of World Cup, it’s also a top sponsor of plastic pollution, and that’s not only an environmental problem, it’s a human health concern. 

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The Plastic Detox documentary created a buzz earlier this year because it raised some important, and alarming, questions about how exposure to plastic’s chemical cocktail through everyday products could be taking a toll on sexual health and fertility. While the science isn’t yet at a stage to connect every dot, growing concerns add yet another reason that plastic-dependent companies like Unilever should halt business as usual and consider what it could be contributing to. 

Microplastics and plastic associated chemicals can enter our bodies through what we eat and drink, the air we breathe, and what we put on our bodies. Microplastics have the potential to damage human cells and tissues, and plastic chemicals include known endocrine disruptors, some of which have been identified in the human body, have shown evidence of detrimental health effects even at very low levels. Plastic pollution is a growing public health emergency, and while policy makers react in slow motion instead of proactively with the precautionary approach, companies like Unilever are taking advantage of the lack of health and plastic regulations that would turn off their throwaway plastic machines once and for all.

Somehow companies like Unilever have normalized pollution as a part of their business model, and work hard to normalize false solutions that never get at the heart of the issue – making too much plastic. But the harm that plastic packaging has caused to people and the planet, particularly in countries in South and Southeast Asia, and Africa that have been flooded with sachets,  is anything but normal, or ethical. Greenpeace UK first shone a light on Dove’s toxic influence with the release of its 2023 report, and since then the movement to ditch sachets and return to more traditional low waste product delivery practices has grown louder. Some communities have clearly said enough is enough.

In April 2026,  a brave group of people composed of Filipino fisherfolk, youth, waste workers, and environmental advocates filed a landmark pollution complaint at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources against Unilever PLC and Unilever Philippines, Inc. on behalf of their communities. These groups rose up against Unilever to hold it accountable for the decades of environmental and economic damage caused by the company’s massive production of single-use plastic sachets. 

Billions of sachets have inundated Philippine waterways, coastal communities and cities, leading to floods, contaminated food systems, degraded ecosystems, and disrupted livelihoods of fisherfolk and waste workers. Because of their multi-layer design, sachets are persistent, non-recyclable, and an environmental menace. Accusing Unilever of violating multiple major environmental laws, the coalition is seeking accountability. They seek administrative fines, an immediate cease-and-desist order on the manufacturing of flexible plastic packaging, and a mandate for the corporation to exclusively fund the cleanup of affected Philippine waterways.

Unilever knows it has a plastic problem. So what will leadership do next? Dove Men + care customers need a win.

Just days ahead of the World Cup 2026 finals, Greenpeace USA activists unfurled a 50-foot banner outside Dove’s USA headquarters with the message “Dove: Care for Men’s Health, Kick Plastic Out.”  Activists dressed in soccer jerseys also handed out ‘red cards’ penalizing Dove. 

Unilever must immediately take the following actions to step up its game. 

• Commit to phase out plastic packaging, starting with sachets, 
• Create a roadmap to transition to reuse and refill globally
• Continue to call for a strong Global Plastics Treaty that cuts production
• Collaborate to grow support for strong regulations on reduction and reuse

Greenpeace and thousands of people have asked Dove to ditch plastic sachets and swap its plastic packaging for reusable alternatives. Dove has invested in various reuse projects, including the much anticipated city-wide, multi-brand, multi-retailer reuse initiative in Ottawa, Canada that is set to launch later this year. Various Dove personal care products will be part of the project, meaning reusable packaging alternatives will actually be available on store shelves. Unilever’s role in this reuse project is the type of leadership we need more of from the company, and what we don’t need more of is 100% plastic packaging or paper-based sachet false solutions that continue to perpetuate a broken, harmful, plastic-dependent, single-use system that continues to drive the waste and pollution crisis worldwide, every single day. 

Unilever is demonstrating that it knows that healthier, plastic-free, reusable packaging options for personal care products exist, but still refuses to expedite a reuse transition and put people before profits. 

Companies serious about ending their plastic problem should commit to ditch plastic and call for a strong Global Plastics Treaty that accelerates a shift from plastic-dependent business models to plastic-free, zero waste, non-toxic reuse systems worldwide.

Join us in urging Unilever to kick plastic out of its packaging! 

Tell Dove: Kick out plastic to protect health!

Plastic packaging isn’t a necessity; it’s Dove’s choice.

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Sarah King is a senior campaign strategist at Greenpeace Canada for the Plastic Free Future campaign.

The Convention on Biological Diversity, or CBD, is one of the three conventions  signed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Every two years, representatives from 196 countries, and many non-governmental actors like Indigenous Peoples and civil society meet to discuss, negotiate and decide on measures to promote the protection of Earth’s biodiversity. This year, the CBD’s COP17 is happening in October, in Yerevan, Armenia.

While these meetings can sound like something very distant from our everyday lives, they are gatherings where crucial decisions, that directly impact our lives and the future of the planet, are taken. From deadly heatwaves to floods, extreme weather events are wreaking havoc on the world, taking thousands of lives and threatening millions more. So the COP is a moment where governments must listen to our voices and take action for the planet. 

The world’s forests are being devastated by industrial agriculture, logging, and by a new rush for minerals. Oceans are plundered by industrial fishing, and deep sea mining is threatening to destroy an area of our planet that has barely been studied. Healthy oceans and functioning forests are vital to maintain the planet’s web of life. Protecting Earth’s ecosystems is also crucial in the fight against the climate crisis, for the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and for the survival of thousands of species, including ourselves.

What is the most recent progress at the CBD?

In 2022, COP15 delivered the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) to “take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss” by 2030. Protecting and restoring at least 30% of land and sea by 2030, the 30×30 targets, are key targets of the framework. This global commitment is not just an environmental aspiration, it is necessary to prevent irreversible ecosystem collapse and biodiversity loss and limit warming to 1.5°C. But the 30×30 target progress review must look beyond area coverage, and there is an equally important need to establish much better policy coherence with other conventions and agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the Global Ocean Treaty. 

Other key targets of the KM-GBF are stressing the need to mobilise enough finance to implement the framework – through increasing public finance and finding innovative ways to do so, and through phasing out and reorienting harmful subsidies. 

In 2024, COP16 established a new body (SB8j) dedicated to Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights, roles, territories and knowledge. Indigenous Peoples and local communities have protected Earth’s vital ecosystems for generations while resisting colonialism and the extraction of the planet’s natural resources. Their knowledge and relationship with nature demonstrate that ecosystems are most resilient when local peoples who depend on them have the power to defend and manage their territories. Yet, their participation in decision making processes related to their lands have been historically sidelined. 

Recognising and respecting Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights, and recognising their contribution to conservation action is the foundation for closing the 30×30 implementation gap through a human rights-based approach, and the creation of the SB8j is a major step to ensure Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ equitable participation in decision-making at the CBD. 

What governments must do at the CBD COP17

This year, governments will review the collective progress in the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, providing a critical moment to assess whether or not the world is on track to achieve its 2030 goals and targets. Governments must take this opportunity to deliver on their commitments by prioritising the protection and restoration of high integrity ecosystems through a human rights-based approach, and by closing the biodiversity finance gap with truly innovative approaches, such as the reform of global and national economic and fiscal policies.

Greenpeace is calling on governments to:

1. Align their national biodiversity plans and strategies, spatial planning and conservation laws with international human rights standards, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and equitable governance principles.
2. Recognise and scale up Indigenous and local community-led conservation initiatives to close the implementation gap of the KM-GBF, particularly Goal A, Target 3, Target 22 and Section C, and support the recognition of Indigenous and Traditional Territories (ITTs) as a distinct, rights-based contribution to Target 3 implementation, without forcing them into protected areas or Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECM) models.
3. Support equitable, predictable and rights-based direct access finance mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples and local communities through existing and future biodiversity finance mechanisms, including the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), the Cali Fund, the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) and other international funding structures.
4. Ensure a coordinated approach between the Rio Conventions for Parties to meet the KM-GBF objectives, enhancing cooperation and policy coherence among the Conventions and maximising synergies between national plans and strategies and monitoring and reporting, to align implementation at the global level and prioritise action where it is most needed. 
5. Improve consistency across climate, biodiversity, human rights and trade-related reporting systems through a harmonised approach to definitions, monitoring methodologies, degradation indicators and ecosystem integrity metrics.
6. Establish legal and regulatory frameworks that demonstrate due diligence to achieve the 2030 targets, including enforceable mechanisms for monitoring, transparency, accountability and remediation. Such frameworks should include a non-deterioration principle for primary and high-integrity ecosystems, preventing activities that cause measurable declines in ecosystem integrity.
7. Align financial systems with due diligence obligations and ecosystem integrity objectives
   • Repurpose subsidies and trade incentives that promote industrial exploitation and resource expansion, such as fossil fuels, agribusiness and harmful forestry practices.
   • Identify, prevent and address the climate, biodiversity, and human rights risks associated with investments, lending, and insurance activities that contribute to deforestation and forest degradation. 
   • Redirect financial incentives towards agroecology and supporting small-scale food producers, to achieve a just transition in the food systems sector, while scaling public finance and fiscal tools that reward protection, restoration and community stewardship, including direct access to finance for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 
8. Phase out harmful industrial activities, rejecting offset-driven, extractivist, destructive approaches that damage ecosystems and biodiversity, undermine rights, or enable continued marginalisation of local people.
9. Recognise forest degradation as a major driver of ecosystem loss, moving beyond narrow approaches to deforestation and forest-cover loss and adopting ecosystem-integrity-based approaches.
10. Enhance synergies between the CBD and the Global Ocean Treaty (BBNJ) to drive a seamless network of fully and highly protected ocean sanctuaries across the blue planet, from coastal waters to the high seas, while safeguarding marine ecosystems against high-risk destruction such as deep sea mining through applying the precautionary principle and the phase-out of harmful public finance, subsidies and incentives.

How to correct the course on ecosystem protection

Indigenous Peoples, local and coastal communities’ ways of life have always been shaped by a deep connection to their territories. They are proof that the path to healthy oceans and forests runs through the people protecting them. Two recent Greenpeace International reports showcase real solutions led by Indigenous Peoples, local and coastal communities, with examples of initiatives that can be strengthened and multiplied:

• The Real Community Solutions is an interactive map showing case-studies that demonstrate practical and effective pathways to forest protection through community-led initiatives, while highlighting how direct access to financial resources is essential to promote such initiatives with a decolonised approach to conservation.
• The report Global Ocean Justice Now makes the case that the world’s ’30×30′ ocean protection targets cannot be met through top-down conservation models that sideline coastal communities. Drawing on four in-depth case studies from Chile, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, the report documents both the cost of exclusion and the results of community-led stewardship while arguing  that rights-based conservation is not only the most just approach, but the most effective one.

The briefing Beyond Deforestation: Ecosystem Integrity and the Emerging Legal Paradigm, argues that existing legal and policy frameworks continue to underestimate the significance of forest degradation by focusing primarily on deforestation, while failing to adequately address the loss of ecosystem integrity caused by logging, extractive activity, and global commodity supply chains. This disconnect between ecological reality and legal governance has become increasingly clear, with the defining question for forest governance in the coming decade not simply being whether forests remain standing, but whether they remain functioning. 

Greenpeace International, together with Mighty Earth, Rainforest Foundation Norway and Fern, released an indicative global Restricted Areas Map and Framework, which provides a prime example for why high integrity ecosystems need to be protected against extractive activities, and these activities need to be regulated, by making the argument that the proposed framework is a crucial step to ensure mining does not destroy essential biodiversity, natural ecosystems, carbon storage and freshwater systems.

Ana Clis Ferreira is a forest campaigner at Greenpeace Brazil. Her journey is defined by a lifetime of dedication to building bridges between environmentalism and marginalized communities. At the age of 27, she has already accomplished a great deal, committing herself to driving change far beyond what she once thought possible. Please, meet Ana Clis.

How did your story with Greenpeace begin?

My story with Greenpeace began in an unusual way. Back in 2016, I became a donor after meeting a fundraising volunteer with Greenpeace Brazil whose enthusiasm inspired me so much. The following year, when I needed to cancel my contribution, I received an invitation to become a volunteer in the organisation. I accepted.

Still, I felt there was a disconnect between what I was doing and learning as a volunteer and the reality of the marginalised communities I belonged to. I lived far away, and it took me four hours a day on public transport to commute to and from the Greenpeace Brazil office in São Paulo. After two years, I decided to step away—though the connection was never truly broken.

When did you return to Greenpeace and how were things different?

Yes! I returned to the volunteer group a year later and created Raízes (Roots), a project focused on working in favelas and urban Indigenous territories. Our mission was to connect communities and bring environmental issues to less reached, peripheral, low-income neighbourhoods, whilst also introducing these neighbourhoods’ struggles to environmental movements.

One of our initiatives—which included talks in schools—was organising a “climate funk party” in a remote area of São Paulo called Cidade Tiradentes, with the backing of the Greenpeace Brazil climate campaign team. Named Baile na Terra (Party on Earth), the project brought together over 150 people, while we also ran several initiatives in public educational spaces across the sprawling city. It helped bridge the gap.

Then you had another very deep experience as a volunteer, which was to flyover the Amazon rainforest.

Indeed. Five years after becoming a volunteer, I was invited to join a flyover over Rondônia, in the Amazon. Seeing the vastness of the rainforest sharing the horizon with wildfires had a transformative impact on me. I wept at the forest destruction and felt tiny in the face of such a colossal problem, but I also felt motivated that I could do something to help and that the true power lay in collective action. And soon after, a campaigner vacancy opened up on the Greenpeace Brazil Forests team. My colleagues supported my application. I was hired, and my volunteering became my profession!

What have been the challenges of activism and what have you learned along the way?

Throughout my journey as an activist, I have often felt guilty for not being able to spend more time with my family. However, my heart found comfort when my father came to understand what I did, and my mother and grandmother proudly told me that my feet tread in places theirs never will.

I am driven by a strong sense of justice, community spirit, and education. I understand what it feels like to be invisible, so today, my work is all about trying to lift those marginalised people out of invisibility.

*Inspiring Stories is a global video series of interviews with Greenpeace staff and volunteers that blends personal narratives with insights on eco-social justice. Through stories of People Power, we show that changemakers aren’t unreachable superheroes, but ordinary people whose active hope, resilience and pursuit of change can inspire others – and change the world.

Karina Miotto is a Content Editor with Greenpeace International.

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