Its certainly not easy being an environmental activist.
Most likely your work goes ignored by the government and corporate interests, but on the occasions when they pay attention to what you’re doing, you’re liable to end up dead.
I wish I could say that that was an overreaction, but the Guardian reports that more than 200 environmental leaders were murdered in 2016, setting a devastating new record.
That’s twice the amount of eco-activists killed worldwide five years ago.
Unfortunately, these killings have become something of a terrible trend.
Last year, I wrote that the record was broken in 2015 with 185 known activist deaths.
Bobby Banerjee, a researcher who studies pushback to global development, says violence has heightened due to the spread of capitalism.
Corporations have moved on to poorer countries where precious land and resources are still up for grabs.
Companies and governments looking to profit off the exploitation of land will hire hit men to murder on their behalf, targeting the leaders of resistance movements.
Greed shouldn’t take precedence over human life, but realistically we’re going to need a lot more environmental activists to put their lives on the line in order to ever topple a system this corrupt.