Jeremy Schulman on the poet from the tiny Marshall Islands who shamed big polluting countries at the UN summit today: -Erika Presidents and diplomats arent the only ones calling for climate action at the United Nations. During the opening ceremony of todays climate summit, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner—a 26-year-old poet from the Marshall Islands—spoke eloquently about the threat that rising seas pose to her country. Jetnil-Kijiner warned delegates of the high price of inaction and described the current challenge as a race to save humanity. Those of us from Oceania are already experiencing it first hand, she said. Weve seen waves crashing into our homes…We look at our children and wonder how they will know themselves or their culture should we lose our islands. We need a radical change of course, she added. It means ending carbon pollution within my lifetime. It means supporting those of us most affected to prepare for unavoidable climate impacts. And it means taking responsibility for irreversible loss and damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 22:00:01 +0000
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