Youth Leaders At U.N. Demand Bold Climate Change Action

Los Angeles Times - Associated Press

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg listens to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the Youth Climate Summit at United Nations headquarters on Saturday. (Associated Press)

UNITED NATIONS — Fresh off a climate strike that took hundreds of thousands of young people out of classrooms and into the streets globally, youth leaders have gathered at the United Nations to demand radical moves to fight climate change.

“We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable,” said 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who started the climate strike movement with her lone protest in front of her country’s parliament about a year and a half ago.
More than 700 mostly young activists attended the first Youth Climate Summit, according to Luis Alfonso de Alba, the U.N. special climate summit envoy.
Friday’s strike across six continents and Saturday’s youth conference presage a full-on climate conference next week at the U.N. General Assembly, which has placed the issue of climate change at front and center as world leaders gather for the annual meeting.

Activists at Saturday’s gathering demanded money for a fund to help poorer nations adapt to a warming world and provide greener energy. They also insisted that the world should wean itself quickly from coal, oil and gas, linked to climate change.
“Stop the criminal contaminant behavior of big corporations,” said Argentine climate activist Bruno Rodriguez. “Enough is enough. We don’t want fossil fuels anymore.”
Jayathma Wickramanayake, the U.N. secretary-general’s youth envoy, called climate change “the defining issue of our time. Millions of young people all over the world are already being affected by it.”
During Thunberg’s short lifetime, for example, Earth has already warmed 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.34 degrees Celsius).
Fiji climate activist Komal Karishma Kumar said global warming is not just taking a toll on the planet but on her generation, especially people from vulnerable places like her Pacific island nation.
“Young people from different parts of the world are living in constant fear and climate anxiety, fearing the future, the uncertainty of a healthy life or a life for their children at all,” Kumar said.
She added: “I do not want our future generations to submerge with our sinking islands.”
After listening to Thunberg and other youth climate activists, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres credited young people with transforming him from a pessimist to an optimist in the fight against global warming.
Guterres said he sees “a change in momentum” going into Monday’s Climate Action Summit taking place ahead of the U.N. General Assembly gathering that starts Tuesday, telling the youths “you have started this movement.”
“I encourage you to keep your initiative. Keep your mobilization and more and more to hold my generation accountable,” Guterres said. “My generation has largely failed until now to preserve both justice in the world and to preserve the planet.”
Kumar told Guterres that “we will hold you accountable and if you do not, remember we will mobilize to vote you out.”

The youth activists brainstormed about what they could do to change the trajectory of an ever-warming planet and how they can help the world adapt. There was talk of hashtags, entrepreneurial ideas and climate art and poetry.
“Be that hummingbird that puts out the forest fire by fetching water with its small beak as all the other animals, including the elephant, told her it was impossible,” said Kenyan activist Wanjuhi Njoroge.

Links

• Youth leaders at UN demand bold climate change action
• Climate Protesters and World Leaders: Same Planet, Different Worlds
• Students speak their minds at global climate strike in L.A.: ‘There is no Planet B’
• Global climate strikes: Protesters rally around the world
• The global climate strike could make history. Here’s what you need to know
• What’s behind the youth movement to tackle climate change? Fear — but also hope

Climate Disasters To Leave 150 Million In Humanitarian Need By 2030: Red Cross

Sydney Morning Herald - Matt Wade

More frequent and intense climate-related disasters including floods, storms and bushfires are forecast to leave 150 million people in need of humanitarian aid each year by the end of next decade and cost up to $29 billion annually.
A new report by the International Federation of Red Cross and leading climate economists says the effects of climate change pose a growing humanitarian threat.

Aid will cost more in a warmer world. Credit: Dave Hunt

It warns of more frequent, unpredictable and destructive extreme weather events which require an unprecedented level of emergency aid. At the same time the broader economic impacts of climate change, especially on agricultural production, will reduce incomes and leave communities more vulnerable to shocks and reliant on international assistance.“Climate change is a humanitarian problem,” the report says.
Modelling reviewed by World Bank economists shows that by 2050, 200 million people every year will need humanitarian aid as a result of climate-related disasters and the socioeconomic impact of climate change. That's nearly twice the 108 million people each year that now need international assistance because of floods, storms, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires.


Climate Change: 200 Million Yearly may Need Humanitarian Aid by 2050 (Climate Report)

Under the most pessimistic modelling the price tag for responding to weather-related humanitarian emergencies will balloon to $29.5 billion per year by 2030.
The report warns the findings are "likely to be underestimates".
But effective investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation would greatly reduce the negative impacts, especially when priority is given to improving the resilience of the most vulnerable communities.
"While there is a clear cost of doing nothing, there is also a chance to do something," the report said.
With “determined and ambitious” action the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of climate-related disasters could be limited to 68 million a year by 2030, and even drop to 10 million by 2050. That would be a decrease of 90 per cent compared with today.
"Stronger buildings, more resilient infrastructure, and dedicated infrastructure like dikes and pumping stations can protect people and economies and reduce the likelihood of a climate hazard
becoming a climate disaster,” the report says.
Improved early warning mechanisms and more sophisticated disaster response and rehabilitation systems are also needed to reduce the humanitarian and economic toll of climate change.
In the longer-term some communities may have to relocate entirely as sea levels rise or other climatic changes makes their locations uninhabitable.
Chief executive of Australian Red Cross, Judy Slatyer, said extreme weather events in Australia are becoming more frequent, intensive and interconnected.
“In Australia there have been steadily growing investments in preparing for extreme weather events, yet there is much more needed to reduce the human impact of climate-related disasters,” she said.
Ms Slatyer also said Australia has an important role to play in reducing the impact of climate-related disasters in our region and globally.
A spate of major emergencies in the past five years has put the international humanitarian system under increased pressure including the Syria and Rohingya refugee crises, outbreaks of the Ebola virus, chronic drought in the Horn of Africa region and a succession of super-storms.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says international humanitarian needs reached an “unprecedented scale” last year.
The separate UN Asia-Pacific disaster report 2019 released last month showed the average number of climate-related disaster events per decade in Australia's region has more than doubled over the past 50 years.
“The region is not sufficiently prepared for this climate reality,” the report said.

Links

• “200 million people in need, US$20billion to respond” – new report estimates escalating humanitarian cost of climate change
• Global launch of new Red Cross report on the humanitarian cost of climate change
• Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019
• COP20 – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Global Climate Strikes: Don’t Say You’re Sorry. We Need People Who Can Take Action To TAKE ACTUAL ACTION

The Guardian - First Dog On The Moon

Brenda the civil disobedience penguin gives some handy dos and don’ts for your civil disobedience 

Cartoon by First Dog on the Moon
LARGE IMAGE

Links

• How Actually Dare People Politicise The Bushfires By Claiming 'Scientifically' It's Linked To The Climate Crisis
• Brenda The Civil Disobedience Penguin Asks: What Will You Give Up To Save The Planet? 
• Some ‘Sinister Tactics’ Those Brave Protesters In Queensland Could Have Used But Also Didn’t 
• It's a global death sentence to keep eating like this: dinnertime at the Foreclaws
• In Not At All Intimidating News: Adani Wants The Names Of Scientists Investigating It 
• What Did You Do In The Climate Wars Daddy?
• How Do You Hug A Climate Scientist? Follow These Simple Rules And Don't Make It Weird 
• Adani: It All Looks Dodgy As Hell And None Of It Has Been Explained Properly
• As We Struggle To Save The Planet From Climate Collapse, Let's Dance (Dramatic Glockenspiel)
• The Billionaire's Guide To Surviving Global Warming – With Ian The Climate Denialist Potato
• 'Last Year I Gave The Kids Briquettes And Everyone Yelled At Me!' Christmas With Ian 
• The Children Are Rioting In The Streets! They Are Deadly Serious And Perhaps Our Last Hope
• This Is A Call To Arms On Climate Change. And By Arms I Mean Flippers!