Humanity is living through truly extraordinary times and if you look at the challenges that we are facing such as the Covid pandemic...we need to ask ourselves why are the poor suffering the most, why are there so many refugees.... How do we overcome these threats to our very survival and how are these challenges inter-connected? The next question that we need to think about is how do we overcome these challenges to build a sustainable future that is a just and fair future for all of humanity.

I would like to draw your attention to the climate crisis and why it is having such a devastating impact on the ecological balance of our planet...the planet is one ecosystem and a negative cause on one side of the planet can have a negative effect on another side. Just as importantly, we have the solutions and we can work together to solve these crises starting with a green recovery and with a just transition to clean energy and the technologies that can make our world better. The power is in our hands to personally make a difference and to help create the future that we all want and that humanity deserves.

Our path is decided! We need to solve the climate crisis and we have the solutions at hand through renewable resources. I know that you are ready to push for a better world and because of you it will happen...

A huge problem that all life on Earth is experiencing is the spewing of millions of tons of man-made global warming pollution into the thin shell of our atmosphere, every 24 hours, as if it is our very own trash can. Man discovered fossil fuels, during the industrial revolution and carbon began to be released into the atmosphere at an exponential rate. The legacy carbon, from the industrial era, together with new carbon, from the modern era, are all trapped in our atmosphere. Our current global surface temperature has already increased by 1 degree celcius since the industrial revolution began, and scientists are trying to cap these temperatures to no more than 2 degrees celcius.

Why is 2 degrees celcius so bad…it doesn’t sound so bad…it’s only a 2 degree increase…now let me show you a 1.5 degree increase vs a 2 degree increase. This half a degree difference will cause the number of heatwave months to increase from 1 month to 1.5 months….will decrease fresh water supply 17% vs 9%, will increase the intensity of heavy rainfall 7% vs 5%, will decrease crop yield 16% vs 9%, will increase sea levels from 40cm to 50cm, and will increase coral bleaching from 90% to 98%. And, if global carbon emissions does not start falling within the next 10 years, we would see global surface temperature increases of not 2 degrees celcius but 3 to 4 degree celcius. These temperatures will parch continents, turning farmland into deserts, half of all species will become extinct, untold millions of people will become displaced and whole nations drowned by the sea.

So, why are the poor impacted the most by climate change? That’s because they live close to the river’s edge, so that when the hurricanes arrive THEIR homes receive the brunt of the flood damage because it is in the front line…the poor live close to coal power stations, and therefore suffer the most from coal power generated pollution…and the poor live in concreted spaces (next to each other and on top of each other) without any green spaces, or trees, needed to keep temperatures down during heatwaves.

By 2070, uninhabitable zones will increase due to climate change, which means that there will be more climate refugees than ever before. The main reason why people are moving away from uninhabitable zones is not because it is too hot… but because they don’t have anything to eat.

Now, if left unchecked, GLOBAL carbon dioxide emissions by 2100 will be so high that we will experience a 25% reduction in our decision-making abilities and a 50% reduction in our strategic thinking abilities. Now let us think about this…we will be inhaling more carbon dioxide than oxygen, and not only do these toxins damage our lungs, hearts, brains and pancreases, but we are losing our very ability to think…

The forests that humanity continues to destroy, exposes us and our domesticated animals to viruses found in wild animals that have lived deep in their ecological niches for thousands of years. Now we destroy the homes of bats and pangolins, and do you think they will relinquish their forest homes without a fight? Their fight for survival causes their viruses to crossover to humans and we are going to experience pandemic after pandemic. The more endangered they become, the more viruses these wild animals will harbour and the more viruses will cross over to humans. Deforestation doesn’t only expose us to viruses that we haven’t been exposed to before...but deforestation also contributes to heating the earth and prevents CO2 being converted to O2.

So what do we do…we need to install renewable energy resources at our place of work, our homes and schools....we need to adopt hybrid/electric vehicles...we need to work with poor communities to plant forests in every available spaces…and we especially need to stop deforestation...

And this is why we need to participate in the biggest environmental revolution of our time. On behalf of all life on Earth, I call you to action!