This is more from the deeply important interview
with Kumi Naidoo. ― Molly
Excerpted from this interview with Kumi Naidoo on Democracy Now! --
As the U.N. climate summit gets underway in Bonn, Germany, African negotiators, activists and youth are particularly vocal about the need for urgent action to mitigate the most devastating effects of global warming. Africa is expected to suffer more from climate change than any other continent. This summer, flooding and mudslides in Sierra Leone killed more than 1,000 people, while extreme drought has left millions of people at risk of famine in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. We speak with Kumi Naidoo, longtime South African anti-apartheid activist and former head of Greenpeace International. He is the chair of a new organization called Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we’re
broadcasting live from the U.N. climate summit here in Bonn, Germany, the home
of Beethoven. This is the first climate summit since President Trump has vowed
to pull the United States out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement, a
process that takes four years. While this action would leave the United States
entirely isolated as the only nation on Earth that’s not a party to the
agreement, many other nations’ leaders are worried about the Trump effect—the
idea that the U.S.’s planned withdrawal will allow other nations to also weaken
their commitments to the Paris deal.
New data by the Global Carbon Project
shows global carbon dioxide emissions are once again rising, after flatlining
for three straight years. These findings dash earlier hopes that global CO2
emissions had peaked for good.
Well, at this year’s climate change
conference, African negotiators, activists and youth are particularly vocal
about the need for urgent action to mitigate the most devastating effects of
climate change. The continent is expected to suffer more from climate change
than any other on Earth. Many African countries are already feeling some of the
worst effects. This summer, flooding and mudslides in Sierra Leone killed more
than a thousand people, while extreme drought has left millions of people at
risk of famine in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
To talk more about this year’s
negotiations and environmental movements across Africa, we’re joined by Kumi
Naidoo, longtime South African anti-apartheid activist, former head of
Greenpeace International. He’s now the head of a new organization called
Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity.
Kumi, it’s great to have you back on Democracy
Now!
KUMI NAIDOO: Great to be here.
AMY GOODMAN: So, we’ve had you
on as head of Greenpeace International. Now you’re starting a new organization.
Talk about what is happening in Africa and why you see the need for this group.
KUMI NAIDOO: Well, firstly,
people need to understand that climate impacts are already devastating the
African continent. The difference with us compared to, say, hurricanes that
happen or typhoons that happen in Southeast Asia, the main impacts of climate
at the moment is climate-intensified drought and climate-intensified desertification.
And these are not cataclysmic media moments like a typhoon or a hurricane is.
But people need to understand that the terrible injustice of this is that the
people that are paying the price, the first, most brutal price, with their
lives, with their livelihoods, with their soil, with their water and so on, are
those that lead the most low-consumptive lifestyles anywhere on the planet.
And the lack of action that we have seen
from the dominant parts of the world suggests to us that, in fact, what we are
dealing with is a problem that you could call climate apartheid, that, in fact,
if you look at where the problem has been caused mostly and where the impacts
are, that it is people of color, whether it’s in the Pacific, whether it’s in
Africa, whether it’s in the Middle East and so on, are in the front edge. I
guarantee you that if it was flipped, we would probably have much more action,
because the reality is that, as Africans, we recognize that racism is alive and
well at the global level, and we see it in places like the United States in a
very powerful way now. And part of getting a climate solution is about actually
valuing human life in an equal way across the planet.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about
the Trump effect and if there is one? This is the first climate summit where
the president of the United States has said he’s pulling the United States out
of the accord, leaving the U.S. alone in the world as the only country not part
of the Paris climate accord. What effect do you see that having?
KUMI NAIDOO: I think it’s had a
negative and a positive effect. The negative effect is that it’s left the
majority of Americans today feeling their president is not acting in their
interest, is giving up global leadership and so on.
The fact that he has gone after the Paris
climate accord, we must remind ourselves—and people seem to have forgotten
about this at this negotiations—that Paris was not a perfect accord. It simply
gave us the chance to live to fight another day. Right? It got the negotiations
back on track. We need to go beyond the Paris commitments, and we built into
the Paris accord review mechanisms and to increase, you know, ambition and so
on.
When I tongue-in-cheek say he’s also been
positive is that because Donald Trump is reviled by the majority of Americans,
is totally reviled by people across the world, it’s actually got people who
never really took interest and passion from climate saying, “Well, you know, if
Donald Trump is against this accord, there must be something good in it.” And
if you look at the United dates, you can see how governors, local government
leaders and so on are stepping up to say, “We will meet those commitments
without, you know, necessarily the support of the federal government.”
Please go here for the full interview: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/11/14/climate_apartheid_south_african_climate_activist
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