Correspondence

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Rooibos settlement: Sahel crisis: cut Kurdistan: stop the Futures: lost a crucial omission global emissions cycle of strife to the past

We celebrate the compensation The recommendations by Alisha I agree with some of the I am deeply disappointed to agreement between the rooibos- Graves and her colleagues for scientists who wrote to Nature see the loss of the Futures tea industry and South Africa’s averting catastrophe in Africa’s from nations experiencing civil section from the print version Indigenous peoples (see Nature Sahel overlook the need to unrest: instability can wreck of Nature. I read only the hard 575, 258; 2019). As researchers address the drivers of its climate educational and research copy of the magazine, and I in the field, what concerns us are and ecological crises (Nature infrastructure (Nature 576, looked forward every week to those left out of the story: small- 575, 282–286; 2019). 382–384; 2019). Several civil the science fiction on its last scale farmers who have worked Although the authors’ wars over the past half-century page. To be able to think deeply rooibos land for generations. recommendations could help to have certainly done so in about contemporary problems It is their oral histories that prevent catastrophe in the short Kurdistan — the geographical and then abruptly shift to a more informed how rooibos seeds to medium term, immediate region divided between Iran, creative turn of mind was, to were originally unearthed by action is also needed against Iraq, Turkey and Syria. The my knowledge, unique among following the paths of ants (a the fundamental causes if we continuing conflict against the scientific publications. finding that led to the birth of are to mitigate crises of rapidly Islamist terrorist group ISIS and The Futures section offered the industry at scale), and how escalating scale and severity in Turkey is making matters worse. me an opportunity to make rooibos was used alongside the longer term. And civil war now looms in connections. For example, the breast milk to nurture their This might seem obvious, Rojava, the autonomous Kurdish mind- and time-bending short children. Yet these farmers but it must be emphasized region in northern Syria. story ‘You will remember this’ do not fit neatly into the repeatedly if we are to ramp The Kurds have been by Justen Russell brought to life compensation-agreement up our currently woefully considered second-class an illustration of two universes narrative because most do not inadequate action against the citizens in their homelands for governed by different laws self-identify as Indigenous San global climate and ecological centuries. Other than in Iraqi (Nature 574, 144; 2019). For me, or Khoi. Traditional knowledge emergency. Otherwise, there Kurdistan, they have no right this imaginative story found a does not necessarily have a is an implicit acceptance of to speak in their own language route to reality as I read Philip clear-cut ethnic provenance. the status quo and the current or to wear traditional attire in Ball’s Comment article ‘Science Although some small-scale trajectory. And the catastrophe state institutions. Research must move with the times’, rooibos farmers are descended in the Sahel, and others like it students must undergo security which speculated on the future from San and Khoi, many trace around the world, will not be screening and are excluded scientific advances of humanity back to slaves and labourers averted, but at best delayed. from some subjects, including (Nature 575, 29–31; 2019). brought in from other parts of electronics and aerospace My more playful side will Africa and from southeast Asia. Keir Philip Imperial College engineering. miss such indulgences when I The group was largely left out of London, UK. It pains me to think what am reading Nature to further the compensation negotiations [email protected] another generation might have my personal and professional and was eventually included to live through in the region. development. only through a gesture by the I was a child in the 1980s, National Khoisan Council. when Iraq’s President Saddam Joseph Moore, Wilmington, Whether the group will benefit Hussein’s use of chemical Delaware, USA. in practice remains to be seen. weapons killed more than [email protected] If not, these communities will 3,000 Kurdish civilians in one be further marginalized: by their day. He bombarded my city, exclusion from an Indigenous Saqqez in Iran, forcing my family heritage, by their dearth of land and thousands of others to flee. and resources, and because they After the war, the damaged lack the power of a government- infrastructure of Iraq’s and recognized council. Iran’s Kurdish regions — often there was electricity for just a Sarah Ives City College of San few hours each day — prevented Francisco, California, USA. most research laboratories from HOW TO SUBMIT [email protected] functioning. Correspondence may be Rachel Wynberg University of Ebrahim Karimi University of submitted to correspondence@ Cape Town, South Africa. Ottawa, Canada. nature.com after consulting the [email protected] author guidelines and section Graham Dutfield University of policies at go.nature.com/ Leeds, UK. cmchno.