The end of COP27 doesn’t feel like the end of the world, but I have moments when it feels close. Like many who follow the issues related to climate disaster, I had not expected much from the conference. In fact, I think I was fairly certain little would be achieved. Last minute resolutions may have lifted the atmosphere somewhat, but glaring gaps in commitments swallow much of the enthusiasm that might have been generated.
A young climate activist, Nyombi Morris, with whose work I am familiar, had dearly wanted to attend from Uganda where he and his family have been displaced for years as the direct result of climate change. He finally managed the funds to get there, to the first COP on his continent’s soil, only to find himself behind barriers along with most people who came to engage without the credentials provided international, industry, science, and corporate leaders. In the end, his high level street cred - TED speaker, 2022 Earth Champion Award winner, CNN Environmentalist, CEO of Earth Volunteers, Fridays for Future leader - earned him a six-minute opportunity to speak at a side event. But I’m not sure the overall experience did anything more than break his heart. He did what he could.
Nyombi Morris after making a brief presentation at COP27.
We all think we are doing what we can, or at least trying. But, I am pained to remind you, it is not enough. Not nearly enough. Because we, you and I and the 8 billion other people on this planet, beyond the right to periodically cast a ballot where we are permitted to do so, don’t control these crucial decisions. It is world leaders, governments, regulated and unregulated energy sectors, corporations, and oil and gas producing countries like mine that have the ability to mitigate the disasters we face. And again, they failed to do so. Instead of regulating oil and gas emissions, they made the historic, last minute gesture of creating a fund to support countries most disastrously affected by climate disasters. (Applause.) It is unclear whether funds made available will be freely given, a direction that would be contrary to the United States’ first, interest-bearing loan, recommendation.
"… but I do feel determined ...”
Clover Hogan, Founder & Executive Director of Force of Nature, has been raising awareness of climate change and its devastating impact on our world for about a third of the time I have. But she’s also only slightly older than a third of my age. If you know hold old I am and can do the math, you might be able to figure out that in her very early twenties, she’s spent almost half her life on the front lines of climate combat. I mourn that young people are in that position when so many of us have known the fragility of the world far longer than she has breathed air, yet we have continued to consume it without regard to the world we leave own our children, and theirs. Blowing through our cash retirement savings is one thing; blowing through the world’s life supporting ecosystems is quite another.
Still, rather than being inured to the dire nature of the situation about which she speaks regularly, at a recent interview Clover’s voice cracked as she spoke about the millions of people dealing with the devastating effects of the climate disasters witnessed just this past year. Then, comparing the number of people who die of air pollution (10M per year) to the number that died of COVID (6.5M over 3.5 years), she questioned the legitimacy of the non-decisions that count climate mortality acceptable but claim disease mortality a crisis. Is climate mortality acceptable simply because it affects poor, black, and brown people more than any others? We closed down the world for COVID. We let the world burn for profits. And people die.
Clover Hogan, Climate Activist
“… because my privilege warrants
that I have to be determined
and I have to show up.”
Clover Hogan.
There is much to lament. Probably too much. Well, if I’m honest, absolutely too much. But we cannot simply give up. We must, like Clover, find our way to being determined, resolute in our commitment to leave the best world possible - yes, even at this late date - to the next and the next and the next generations. Whether or not you consider yourself privileged, you are living in a world a future generation will not know. That, in itself, counts you as privileged. So let’s do this. Let’s find the big and the little ways to make a difference. Because even the seemingly minute ways that e change our behaviours and choices on a day to day basis remind us of our determination. And it is our determination that will keep us going when hope no longer does.
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None of the photos in this post are my own. Nyombi’s and Clover’s are taken from their LinkedIn posts. The COP27 photo is a usage free photo accessed through Google Images.