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“Our world is plagued by a perfect storm on a number of fronts,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a speech that called for urgent action on a number of interconnected challenges, including the global economic crisis, climate change, income and gender inequality, US-China relations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- He was speaking yesterday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos.
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We must end our addiction to fossil fuels, and “stop our self-defeating war on nature,” Guterres added.
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Now more than ever, it’s time to forge the pathways to cooperation in our fragmented world.
At private conference held at a 5 star Swiss resort, where the elite arrive in private jets to wax lyrical about the worlds problems over expensive food flown in from faraway exotic places. This is year WEF is trumpeting a reset of capitalism and leading the luxurious rant was UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
After mentioning that the world is plagued by a number of challenges with a bleak economic outlook where there is a deepening inequalities and a rapidly unfolding cost-of-living crisis, supply chain disruptions, energy crunch,soaring prices, rising interest rates along with inflation plus debt levels pounding vulnerable countries, Guterres got round to the climate crisis.
“Every week brings a new climate horror story. Greenhouse gas emissions are at record levels. The commitment to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is going up in smoke. Without further action, we are headed to a 2.8 degree increase,'” he said. “The consequences will be devastating. Several parts of our planet will be uninhabitable. And for many, this is a death sentence,” he added.
He then called out the fossil fuel industry and oddly, took a swipe at the tobacco industry.
“But it is not a surprise. The science has been clear for decades. I am not talking only about UN scientists. I am talking about fossil fuel scientists. We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our planet. Just like the tobacco industry, they rode rough-shod over their own science. Big Oil peddled the big lie. And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account. Today, fossil fuel producers and their enablers are still racing to expand production, knowing full well that their business model is inconsistent with human survival,” ranted Guterres.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
