“What we’re dealing with is a death by a thousand cuts,” says North Dakota indigenous leader Kandi Mossett of the impact of the booming fracking and oil-drilling industry in her home state.

“We’ve had violence against women increase by 168 percent, particularly in the area of rape,” Mossett says. “We have 14-, 15- and 16-year-old girls that are willingly going into man camps [for oil workers] and selling themselves.” She says the full impact of toxins from oil drilling won’t be felt for another 20 years. “I’m so worried that at this COP21 my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter won’t have a say, but she will be experiencing the worst impacts. It just doesn’t make any sense to me that this is the 21st COPand we are considered sacrifice zones in my community.”