By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 In a sharply-worded letter aimed at media leaders and chief editors prior to the UN Climate Change Conference now taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, young woman activist Vanessa Nakate of Uganda spared the politeness and highlighted today\u2019s calamities in her part of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMelting glaciers, wildfires, droughts, deadly heat waves, floods, hurricanes, loss of biodiversity. These are all symptoms of a destabilizing planet, which are happening around us all the time,\u201d she said in a letter co-authored with activist Greta Thunberg of Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe climate crisis isn\u2019t just about extreme weather. It\u2019s about people. Real people. And the very people who have done the least to create the climate crisis are suffering the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose are the kind of things you report about \u2014sometimes,\u201d Nakate reminded the media community. \u201cThe climate crisis, however, is much more than just this. If you want to truly cover the climate crisis, you must also report on the fundamental issues of time, holistic thinking and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nakate recalled walking with a friend through central Kampala last month when they saw a police truck go by, a body in the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a sight that has become more common in Uganda,\u201d Nakate said. \u201cThe life of that person, and many others, was taken by a heavy downpour in my home city. Uganda has been battered by floods in recent years, as well as droughts and plagues of locusts. So much has been damaged and lost as a result of the climate crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI believe in the \u201cpolluter pays\u201d principle,\u201d she declared. \u201cWe know who did this\u2014but they don\u2019t want to pay the bill. Rich countries providing finance only for the mitigation of our emissions and protections against future impacts is no longer enough. Climate-vulnerable countries need funds to deal with the damage we are suffering now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nakate, 24, is the author of A Bigger Picture: My fight to bring a new African voice to the climate crisis. Her words were backed up by Malawi President, theologian and chair of the Southern Africa Development Community, Lazarus Chakwera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chakwera scolded rich countries. \u201cIf countries with the greatest capacity to effect change but do not, those with more modest means should not be expected to do so. At COP26, the West must show it is now fit for the challenge and will finally fulfill its obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve been involved in bringing the earth we call home to this state, let’s clean it up, but you have to be responsible. Your $100 billion climate pledge in 2009 to help poor countries deal with climate change each year is not a matter of charity,\u201d he said. \u201cSo pay up or perish with us,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, among the many young people at the conference, 26-year-old Elizabeth Wathuti of Kenya, founder of Green Generation Initiative, expressed a widely shared view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of my key expectations was to see more action instead of going to these forums and hearing talks, talks, talks for the next years. My thought was, COP26 is coming up, and to me this translates into 26 years of inaction\u2026 Youth from Africa, Asia and Latin America make up 90 percent of the total Global youth population\u201d, she said, \u201cbut the focus on youth in Europe, North America, and Australia remains most prevalent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe felt so many times as though we were being ignored or not being listened to at all. Because if we were being listened to, then we would be fully represented in this global climate conversation…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt has been a struggle, but I really hope as we continue to use our voices to speak up for our countries, for our people, the world will begin to pay attention.\u201d [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 31 October 2021]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo: Young woman activist Vanessa Nakate. Source: Global Information Network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 In a sharply-worded letter aimed at media leaders and chief editors prior to the UN Climate Change Conference now taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, young woman activist Vanessa Nakate of Uganda spared the politeness and highlighted today\u2019s calamities in her part of the world. \u201cMelting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,27,53,16,32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-environment-resources-energ","9":"category-goal13","10":"category-news","11":"category-regions","12":"category-sdgs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6072,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6070\/revisions\/6072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}