United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has underscored the need for urgency in addressing what he described as ‘the orgy of destruction’ of the planet.
“We are treating nature like a toilet. And ultimately, we are committing suicide by proxy,” Guterres warned at Tuesday’s opening of a UN diversity conference in Montreal, Canada.
He told the event that losing nature and biodiversity comes with a steep human cost.
“Our addiction to fossil fuels has thrown our climate into chaos — from heatwaves and forest fires to communities parched by heat and drought or inundated and destroyed by terrifying floods,” the UN Chief lamented.
“Unsustainable production and consumption are sending emissions skyrocketing and degrading our land, sea, and air. Today, one-third of all land is degraded, making it harder to feed growing populations,” Guterres observed.
“Multinational corporations are filling their bank accounts while emptying our world of its natural gifts,” he stated.
“Ecosystems have become playthings of profit. With our bottomless appetite for unchecked and unequal economic growth, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction,” Guterres declared.
He told the Conference it was time to forge a pact with nature, stating that the gathering was a chance to stop the destruction and move from discord to harmony.
“No excuses. No delays. Promises made must be promises kept,” Guterres asserted.
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Yes we are extremely unkind to nature which in the short run affects every facet of our very existence. We need to be mindful of our own self destruction if we do not take heed to this mandate.
From creation/the beginning of time everything was set in place and there was a balance within nature and the environment. Currently, everything is off balance and there will be severe consequences to the entire universe.
We as student nurses at SALCC are being treated at the worst by the administration in the department of nursing. Is it because we are part of nature? Gender base emotional and mental abuse is real. However, when women are adversely affected by other women emotionally and mentally it is overlooked. Why? When men are the perpetrators it is highlighted. Where in the gender equality as it pertains to the appropriate interventions. Kindly visit the department of nursing at SALCC for the practical session on gender base emotional and mental abuse. Thank you
There are too many humans on this planet. The world is overpopulated. People keep on popping out babies like there’s no tomorrow – it’s selfish for both the child and the environment. What sort of future do those young people have? Limit the size of your families NOW if you want them to live in a place that has some remnants of the natural world for them to enjoy. And be kind to the environment with every day living. St Lucia is a cesspool – drains clogged with plastic and other rubbish even in the Capital. It shows the general lack of respect that Lucians have generally for their environment, themselves and for their communities and each other. It’s indicative of a failing country in the wider sense. Both sad and disgusting.
Guterres’ “concern trolling” is explained in this commentary snipped from the intertubes:
“The entire climate movement has ALWAYS been to keep undeveloped down, stop the advancement of developing nations, and allow rich developed nations to remain on top.
Since industrial development is proportional to carbon output, the plan is to hobble developing nations by implementing a carbon cap, while the rich nations (who control the world’s financial system) can simply buy carbon credits from undeveloped nations and carry on as normal. China’s BRI put the kibosh on that plan. The infrastructure development allow formerly undeveloped countries to build up their own industry, and suddenly they are unwilling to sell carbon credits anymore (since they need them for themselves).
So now the rich developed nations are trapped in a system they designed: without enough nations willing to sell carbon credits, they either need to de-industrialize and rely solely on their control of the international financial system, or they pull out and end this charade (like Trump tried to do).”