[GPSCC-chat] Fw: Climate Change --- the Biggest Human Rights and Survival Issue of Our Time!

[Caroline Yacoub]

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: shane que hee <squehee at ucla.edu>
Sent: Wed, December 5, 2012 12:18:30 PM
Subject: Climate Change --- the Biggest Human Rights and Survival Issue of Our 
Time!


Subject:  Climate Change --- the Biggest Human Rights and Survival Issue of Our 
Time!
>
>From: kwazinkrumah at aol.com
>
>Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2012 12:30:06 -0500 (EST)
>
>
>Please check out this very clear assessment of the trajectory of global warming 
>and its current and future impact on human rights and the struggle for human 
>life itself throughout the world.  --- Kwazi Nkrumah.
>
>(Thanks to Ed Pearle for forwarding this one to me. I strongly recommend 
>actually watching the film clip of the live interview rather than simply reading 
>it in print. It will be well worth a few minutes of your time, even on a very 
>busy day! )
>
>
> 
>http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/4/fmr_irish_president_mary_robinson_climate 

> 
>Former Irish President Mary Robinson: Climate Change the Biggest Human Rights 
>Issue of Our Time
> 
>Democracy Now: December 04, 2012
> 
>Guest:  Mary Robinson, president of the Mary Robinson Foundation–Climate 
>Justice. She served as president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and U.N. high 
>commissioner for human rights from 1997 to 2002. She is a member of the Elders 
>and the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honors and awards, 
>including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.
> We begin todayÂ’s show from the U.N. climate change summit right here in Doha 
>with Mary Robinson. She was the first female president of Ireland and former 
>U.N. high commissioner for human rights. Today she heads the Mary Robinson 
>Foundation–Climate Justice.
>And we welcome you to Democracy Now!
>MARY ROBINSON: Thank you, Amy.
>AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what is happening here at the U.N. climate summit.
>MARY ROBINSON: I wish more was happening here that was real for people outside 
>Doha and who need an urgent and ambitious climate agreement. Unfortunately, 
>there is a lot of position taking. ItÂ’s almost like a trade negotiation rather 
>than an urgent meeting about staying below 2 degrees Celsius, getting urgent 
>commitments on emissions, on adaptation, on transfer of technologies and on 
>finance. And itÂ’s really very frustrating for those who come hoping that the 
>negotiators will take their responsibility.
>AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about a quote of Todd Stern, the U.S. climate 
>negotiator, last year in Durban, when the U.S. opposed the inclusion of the 
>concept of equity in the Durban mandate, saying it would be used to enforce 
>binding emissions targets on developed countries, the biggest polluters. He 
>said, "If equity is in, we are out." What does "equity" mean?
>MARY ROBINSON: Well, equity is in the convention, and so is common but 
>differentiated responsibilities and respective capability. So it canÂ’t be out 
>of these climate negotiations. And equity means fairness, basically. It means 
>that we have to take into account the injustice of the fact that itÂ’s the 
>fossil fuel growth in the United States, Europe and other developed parts of the 
>world, which has contributed to undermining development of very poor people, 
>undermining their livelihoods. IÂ’ve seen it all over Africa and South Asia. To 
>me, as a human rights person, itÂ’s unconscionable that we will not take that 
>seriously and talk about equity.
>But equity isnÂ’t a zero-sum game. Equity is not negative. ItÂ’s actually 
>potentially very positive. It means that we can get a fair agreement that 
>provides access to clean energy for the 1.3 or 1.4 billion who have no 
>electricity in the 21st century and the 2.6 billion who cook on charcoal and 
>animal dung and coal and ingest fumes that kill two million people a year. So, 
>we can actually change the quality of life for both rich and poor countries in a 
>way that doesnÂ’t undermine happiness and good livelihoods.
>AMY GOODMAN: President Robinson, what is your assessment of the U.S. role here? 
>ItÂ’s significant not just because weÂ’re an American broadcaster, but because 
>itÂ’s clearly, so much of the time, calling the shots here.
>MARY ROBINSON: There was expectation that the Obama administration would lead on 
>climate. And I can understand some of the reasons why it was not possible in the 
>first term. And I’m glad now that President Obama’s gone on—going on a 
>listening tour, that he has referenced climate and the impact of it. And there 
>is a huge need for leadership by the United States, because this is the most 
>important decision that any negotiators will take, that we get a good climate 
>agreement by 2015, the Durban enhanced platform, and that it must deal with 
>issues of equity, not just in mitigation, but in adaptation for poor 
>communities, in transfer of technologies so that the right to development of 
>poor communities is respected, and in financing in order to help that.
>There was a good decision made here in Doha, and that was on increasing the 
>participation of women, having gender balance in all the bodies of the UNFCCC 
>and in the delegations, and having gender on the agenda. How did we get it? 
>Because every delegation actually wanted this to happen. And the spirit—
>AMY GOODMAN: Well, explain, because we certainly don’t see that right now—
>MARY ROBINSON: Yeah.
>AMY GOODMAN: —at the summit, and yet, when you look at environmentalists around 
>the world, so many of them, environmental leaders, are women.
>MARY ROBINSON: Yeah, and women are very affected by climate, when it undermines 
>poor livelihoods. So, having a good gender balance will make a difference in the 
>future. But I think it was also an indication that where there is a will to 
>achieve decisions, they can happen here. Why is there not a will to have a 
>climate agreement that is fair and equitable, but that deals with the fact that 
>the World Bank is telling us, "Turn down the heat; a 4-degree world is 
>catastrophic"?
>YouÂ’ve had Hurricane Sandy. YouÂ’ve had drought in the western part of the 
>United States. The United States—Midtown Manhattan, where I used to live, is 
>not climate-resilient when there is a big flooding. And, you know, think of poor 
>communities who are affected. So we need to ensure that climate is more 
>people-focused.
>WeÂ’ve just concluded an agreement with the World Resources Institute based in 
>Washington for a climate justice dialogue, to open up space to talk about 
>equity, to talk about what African countries think about it, what the United 
>States thinks about it, what China thinks about it, what India thinks about it, 
>because nobody is talking about what we need to talk about.
>AMY GOODMAN: Well, talk about Africa. You are one of the Elders, considered—you 
>know, Nobel Peace Prize laureates from around the world. You spend a lot of time 
>in Africa, as well. What does equity mean there?
>MARY ROBINSON: I think what is really very evident in African countries now is 
>that climate change is real and hurting. ItÂ’s real in Kenya, where you have 
>long periods of drought and flash flooding, and in Uganda. In Liberia, when I 
>talk to my friend Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president, she says, "Mary, when I 
>was growing up, we used to have rainy seasons that were predictable. Now, a 
>rainy season comes for far too long. I canÂ’t mend my roads. I canÂ’t plan my 
>economy." And all over Africa, the effects of climate change are being felt.
>AMY GOODMAN: And particularly on women, why are women the hardest hit?
>MARY ROBINSON: Because women are 80 percent of the farmers in Africa. Women have 
>to produce the food on the table. Women have to go still further for water. It 
>takes up far more of their time now. TheyÂ’re very, very stressed. And yet, 
>women are also forming groups to be able to counter this. We all loved Wangari 
>Maathai, and unfortunately she died too early, but there are actually a lot of 
>women like that who are engaging in tree planting, who are engaging in water 
>management, in order to try to improve the situation. TheyÂ’re not just 
>adapting, theyÂ’re mitigating. TheyÂ’re doing it because they have to. TheyÂ’re 
>on the edge. TheyÂ’re stressed. Why canÂ’t we in the richer parts of the world 
>understand itÂ’s going to affect all of us? WeÂ’re all in a kind of sinking ship 
>together, going into a 4-degree-or-plus world. There is no way we will have a 
>peaceful world.
>You know, the good thing about women is, we are very intergenerational. I think 
>a lot about my four grandchildren. They will be in their forties in 2050. They 
>will share the world with nine billion others. I worry not just about my 
>grandchildren. What kind of world will it be when we have far more weather 
>shocks, far more drought, far more food insecurity and water stress? I mean, 
>what will they say about us? Why didnÂ’t we get real here in Doha? Why didnÂ’t 
>the United States give more leadership in Doha and beyond? ThatÂ’s the questions 
>that the next generation will ask of us.
>AMY GOODMAN: Many are accusing the U.S. of attempting to dismantle the Kyoto 
>Protocol, which it never signed onto to begin with, by moving away from binding 
>commitments and going to voluntary targets. As we conclude, as you wrap up to go 
>to yet another meeting here, what about voluntary targets?
>MARY ROBINSON: Amy, I donÂ’t think voluntary targets alone are enough. We can 
>have a lot of voluntary in the private sector and elsewhere—everybody has to 
>take their responsibility—but we do need binding, verifiable targets for all 
>now. And that’s what the—actually, it’s what is in the Durban enhanced 
>platform. ItÂ’s an agreement for all countries, because the emerging economies 
>are becoming the biggest emitters. TheyÂ’ll be the biggest historical emitters 
>in the future, when we look back. So, we need a new willingness, a new trust. 
>And that can only come from leadership, particularly of those who need most to 
>lead, and the United States is on the forefront of that.
>AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Mary Robinson, you were the president of Ireland. Then you 
>were the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. Now you are running the Mary 
>Robinson Foundation, and youÂ’re focusing on what you call "climate justice." 
>Why are—has climate become your major issue?
>MARY ROBINSON: Because climate change is posing one of the biggest human rights 
>challenges I have ever known of the century. ItÂ’s undermining 
>livelihoods—rights to food and safe water and health and education. It’s 
>having people displaced by climate, and that can bring conflict. WeÂ’re told 
>that we are likely to have as many as 200 million climate-displaced people by 
>2050. ThatÂ’s not very far away. Where will they go? What kind of conflict will 
>that bring about? So, I wake up every morning thinking we have to be more 
>urgent, we have to be more ambitious. When I sit in the halls here and listen to 
>the clichés of trade negotiators, who should be talking about the future of the 
>planet, it—you know, I cannot tell you how—and yet, I get great hope from 
>young people from the business community. I took part in a climate summit of 
>business leaders yesterday. They want the climate negotiators to be more urgent, 
>and they want the United States to take more leadership—
>AMY GOODMAN: The business leaders—
>MARY ROBINSON: The business leaders, absolutely.
>AMY GOODMAN: —are calling on the U.S. to take more action.
>MARY ROBINSON: Calling on not just the U.S., on the EU, on the U.S., on the rest 
>of the world, because they want to do business, and they can see that we are not 
>going to have a sustainable future unless we act now.
>AMY GOODMAN: Mary Robinson, I want to thank you very much for being with us.
>MARY ROBINSON: Thank you, Amy. OK.
>AMY GOODMAN: Mary Robinson is president of the Mary Robinson Foundation–Climate 
>Justice. She was the president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and served as the 
>U.N. high commissioner for human rights from 1997 to 2002. SheÂ’s a member of 
>the Elders and the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honors and 
>awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the president of United 
>States, Barack Obama.
>This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come 
>back, weÂ’ll be joined by the lead climate negotiator from the Philippines as 
>news comes down right now of one of the worst hurricanes in Philippine history 
>taking place as we broadcast here in Doha, Qatar. Stay with us.AMY GOODMAN:
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