OK, maybe not ever, but the challenge of our lives
(IBD) When Nelson Mandela formed the Elders in 2007 to promote peace and human rights across the world, he challenged us to be bold and to give a voice to those who have none. No issue demands these qualities more than our collective failure to tackle climate change.
Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. It threatens the well-being of hundreds of millions of people today and many billions more in the future. It undermines the human rights to food, water, health and shelter — causes for which we, as Elders, have fought all our lives.
Says the man who looked the other way as the head of the United Nations while 850,000 Rwandans were systematically slaughtered.
What is needed to prevent this catastrophe has been established. Global temperature rises must be limited to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This means turning away from fossil fuels and accelerating the deployment of affordable renewable energies, for instance by setting an agreed price for carbon.
Writes the man who takes all sorts of fossil fueled trips around the world. Think he flies commercial?
The way forward must be to meet the timetable for a robust, universal and legally binding agreement on climate change next year, under which every country commits to phasing down greenhouse gas emissions.
Fortunately, without any sort of Big Government binding agreement the world’s temperature has been statistically flat since 1998. But, again, this is all about more Government control while instituting Progressive (nice fascist)Â politics.
