Our friends at UpsideDownWorld.com recently published this piece by Leny Olivera on how climate change effects women and how female activists are working to make a difference in South America.

In Latin America, where “development” so often implies such relations of aggression towards land and people, women are choosing to fight back – even if it means risking their lives – because with so much violence already around them they know they have nothing to lose. Doña Máxima lives beside Laguna Azul, near one of the largest gold mines in South America, the Yanacocha mine in Peru. The mining company has tried to violently displace locals because there is gold on their land, and Maxima has been fighting the displacement through the courts for four years, risking her life in the process. “I am poor and illiterate”, she says, “but I know that our lake and mountains are a true treasure, and I will fight to stop the Conga project from destroying them.”

Read the whole story here at UpsideDownWorld.com.