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II. Climate Justice and Decolonization Climate justice and decolonization go hand in hand, as climate change is an ethical and political issue, as opposed to a purely environmental one. We have discovered that often, governments ignore the input of colonized people and in some cases disregard their claims altogether. Without realizing the power of colonized people and working with them to solve issues, climate justice cannot be reached. What is decolonization? Decolonization is the act or process of eliminating colonialism or freeing from colonial status . We all have the right to be heard and we must take into 4 consideration colonized people, who have typically been ignored or repressed. Thus: "decolonize." "Indigenous people and their communities, and other local communities, have a vital role in environmental management and development because of their knowledge and traditional practices. States should recognize and duly support their identity, culture, and interests and enable their effective participation in the achievement of sustainable development." Principle 22, Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992 Learning from Indigenous Climate Action - A Case Study of the Gaia Foundation When discussing climate change in relation to colonized people, we collectively discovered that colonized groups don't necessarily require or desire "help," as this promotes a sense of dependence on colonizers. Instead, we realized that such people want to be respected and given the ability to speak up and be heard as they themselves have the knowledge and ability to fight for what they want. This is key to addressing climate change, because without encouraging free input from all groups, we are disregarding or rather missing out on key information to help us all deal with climate change in a just way. In this section we tell the story of Indigenous people some of us met who are taking climate change into their own hands while rebuilding their community. In Costa Rica, students working on the "Decarbonize: Decolonize" project had the opportunity to visit the Terraba Indigenous community in order to learn from them and talk to them about climate change. During their visit, the Térraba people mentioned that they were working on a project called "Senderos de Paz" with the help of a foundation called the Gaia Foundation. "Senderos de Paz," which means peace paths, is a project about reforestation throughout the Indigenous communities in Costa Rica. The Térraba are working to create a path that connects the different Indigenous communities, so that they can support each other. They are also working together to replant areas that had been deforested by non-Indigenous people. To fund this project, they are using carbon offsetting. Though we recognize that carbon offsetting can be a problem in some cases, it is working for the Térraba. This is part of a national program in which all the citizens that sign the "Mother Earth Agreement" compromise to calculate and offset their carbon footprint every year, to reach the carbon-neutral national goal. The Térraba, along with some representatives of the Gaia Foundation, have been meeting with 4 https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/decolonization 6

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