What can we learn from the U'wa? Persistence, for one thing. Decades after they came to the world's attention for successfully protecting their sacred lands from environmental destruction, they have not wavered in their determination. The threats may change -- Occidental Petroleum announced their departure from U'wa territory in 2002 later replaced by Colombia's national oil company Ecopetrol -- but their vociferous (and strictly nonviolent) self-defense will not. The latest attacks on their lands and their culture are concentrated in northern U'wa territory. Starting in February of 2014, Ecopetrol intensified oil exploration activities on an oil platform known as Magallanes. While technically outside the U'wa resguardo (reservation), the area is firmly within U'wa ancestral territory. It is also immediately next to the Cubogón River, which holds spiritual significance for the U'wa, in addition to supporting their daily livelihoods. Berito Cobaría — longtime U'wa spiritual leader and recipient of the 1998 Goldman Environmental Prize — spoke out in a recently published video interview. "We have to pass along the wisdom we have held over many centuries around speaking for and protecting the environment." The U'wa continue to see oil (Ruiria, in their language) as the blood of mother Earth. "What could we do right now if we didn't have blood in our bodies?" Berito continues. "Our bodies would weaken and die. That's what's happening as we are extracting this blood from the Earth, causing the slow death of our natural environment." Thinking in terms of climate change, the U'wa vision as articulated by Berito and the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are very similar, if couched in different terminology.