By Leonardo Grosso*

Climate change does not exist — “it’s left‑wing lies,” “a cultural Marxism fraud,” says the Argentine president to anyone who asks. Javier Milei has placed Argentina among the countries driving climate denial.

Barely in office, he immediately defunded all public environmental policies. He also shut down the Ministry of Environment of the Nation, withdrew our country from the Conference of the Parties (COP 29), and did not send any delegation to COP 30. He now intends to leave the Paris Agreement — though he has yet to succeed, as he needs a parliamentary majority.

Meanwhile, our people do not stop being hit by the climate crisis: in March 2025, Bahía Blanca and nearby towns in the south of Buenos Aires province experienced unusually intense rains that caused severe material damage, thousands of evacuations and at least 17 deaths. Later, in May, the northern region of the province was again hit by massive flooding, with almost 10,000 people evacuated in municipalities like Campana, where around 300 mm of rain fell in 24 hours.

In Patagonia, between October 2024 and March 2025, more than 31,000 hectares were burned in the provinces of Río Negro, Neuquén and Chubut — an area four times larger than the previous season. The fires affected national parks (Lanín, Nahuel Huapi, Los Alerces) and urban areas, causing one fatality and destroying homes.

Currently (November 2025), the Salado River basin in Buenos Aires province faces a critical flooding situation, with millions of hectares affected and major productive and social impact. The intense rains, which doubled historical averages, have triggered an emergency in at least 28 municipalities.

Last night I heard Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva say that climate change has no ideology, that an ethical dimension about caring for life in all its forms must prevail. I agree with her — it is an ethical issue and one of planetary survival.

But to the far right it seems it is not. That’s why we must confront those agendas with clear ideas and proposals. Climate action is not enough — we must rethink the organization of life in general. We are on the brink of collapse.

Juan Domingo Perón (popular leader and Argentine President 1943‑1955) in his Environmental Message to the Peoples and Governments of the World in 1972 already warned of “humanity’s suicide march” in the face of environmental destruction, natural‑resource waste and social inequality.

A decade ago Pope Francis made a call to reflection and global action in his encyclical Laudato Si, where among other things he explains that if we intend to extend the European way of life to the rest of the world we need three and a half planets to materially produce all the goods we consume.

The analysis of current conditions reveals a complex scenario: global capitalism has consolidated an unsustainable reproduction logic that strips the Global South of its resources (common goods) and condemns them to perpetuate extractivist models that worsen the environmental crisis and deepen inequality.

For us this story is old and familiar. Eduardo Galeano illustrated this dynamic in Open Veins of Latin America by pointing out how the riches of Our America were systematically transferred to the Global North, leaving our peoples trapped in structural poverty. Those veins remain open to this day. That is why it is necessary to face a Transition, not only ecological. Social and ecological: Socioecological.

It is imperative to challenge this model of dispossession, ecological destruction and dependence that replicates at a global scale, exacerbated by the logics of the capitalocene and the planet’s material limits. As Maristella Svampa notes, the socio‑ecological transition must be conceived as a process that allows reorganizing the relations between society and nature, moving toward a development model based on reciprocity, care, and resource sovereignty.

This approach requires planning comprehensive solutions that transform productive, energy and urban practices, disseminating their benefits and strengthening popular organization and collective action to guarantee their implementation.

To imagine a new way of living — Buen Vivir — embracing the ancestral wisdom of our Indigenous or Indigenous‑origin peoples, the organizational experience of our labor movement, the courage of our women and the persistence of our social movements.

As inhabitants of South America we have the historical duty to lead this process, understanding that the transition is not an end in itself but a path to a new social and environmental pact that allows our peoples and the planet to reclaim their dignity and well‑being.

*Leonardo Grosso. Activist of the Movimiento Evita. Former National Deputy, chaired the Environment Commission of Congress, current General Administrator of the Institute for Urban, Environmental and Regional Development (IDUAR) in Moreno, Buenos Aires Province.