“Voices for Health” Kicks Off with a Focus on Climate Action

“We need to reclaim life, the immense force that is life,” repeated Amazon-focused documentary filmmaker Eliane Brum during the opening conference of the series “Voices for Health: Narratives and Action in the Face of Climate Change.” And that word “life,” emphatically pronounced in her Brazilian Portuguese and understood by her as “something collective,” resonated like a heartbeat in the Palau Macaya hall in Barcelona, where around a hundred people had gathered. The event, held on June 11 and organized by Fundación "la Caixa" and ISGlobal, invited collective reflection on the urgent transformations required by the current climate crisis. “Hope is overrated, just like happiness once was: what we need is the will to live,” Brum continued.

Joining her in the discussion were Fernando Valladares, researcher, biologist, and ecologist at the CSIC and associate professor at URJC; Jonathan Watts, journalist and environment editor at The Guardian; and Rafa Vilasanjuan, Director of Policy and Global Development at ISGlobal, who moderated the event.

This was the first in a series of events over the next six months that aim to promote a plural, open, and action-oriented conversation. Structured into three thematic blocks, each will consist of an inspiring open session, three closed workshops, and a final public conference where the proposals resulting from the reflections will be presented.

From the Heart of Life

Fernando Valladares emphasized the need to take a public stand in a reality that no longer allows for passivity or neutrality: “It is time to take a stand in our daily lives.” According to the scientist, “denialism is a symptom of a civilization on the brink of collapse,” and “there is no room left for the silent majority.”

British journalist Jonathan Watts agreed on the need to go further: “Everyone can do something. Do what you can… and a little bit more.” Author of a recent book on James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory, Watts expressed strong belief in the power of storytelling but was also critical of contemporary journalism: “We need to change the narrative; we must be more radical, because journalism can also become an extractive industry.”

In this spirit, Watts and Brum, who share their lives in the devastated Amazonian town of Altamira, founded the journalism platform SUMAÚMA to tell stories from ‘the center of the world’, always from the perspective of the forest and its peoples, with an editorial team increasingly made up of journalists from the rainforest. “We want to do more than we have done so far.” Brum, also the author of the book The Amazon, concluded: “To live is to fight — we must understand this.”

The event closed with the screening of the documentary Don Benjamín, produced by medicusmundi Mediterrània and presented by its creator, Iván Zahinos. The film explores the intimate relationship between a Bolivian Amazon farmer and nature, and his efforts to reforest the ravaged jungle.

The next open conference will take place on June 25 at the Palau Macaya in Barcelona.