November 11th. A day to remember the horrors of war and remember all those who have died in the past, and commit to building a world where there is peace. But how can we have peace in the future if we do not reverse climate change? Massive storms, fires and drought threaten to make huge areas of the planet uninhabitable. This day is also the first day of the Conference of the Parties (COP19) talks in Warsaw, Poland. A place where something could be done about this threat to our future. It is also the day after a devastating super typhoon hit the Philippines, killing thousands of people.
In Poland, the Philippines lead negotiator, Naderev 'Yeb' Saño, addressed COP 19 yesterday:
“Typhoons such as Haiyan and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to procrastinate on climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change.
"The Philippines has now begun the painful assessment and recovery process following this following this weekend’s storm, which has now hit landfall in Vietnam.
"It has been recognized as the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in modern history, spanning over 600km and with winds of 315km/h and gusts of up to 380km/h. Officials estimate up to 10,000 people have died in Tacloban and elsewhere, within hundreds of thousands more displaced....”
Saño spoke of his brother, who has spent the last three days gathering dead bodies from the rubble and is going hungry because supplies have been cut off from his island. Yeb Saño is fasting in solidarity with his countrymen:
"In solidarity with my countrymen who are now struggling for food back home, and with my brother who has not had food for the last three days … I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate. This means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP, until a meaningful outcome is in sight. Until concrete pledges have been made to ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund as this process cannot afford a fourth COP in a row with the GCF empty. Until the promise of the operationalization of a loss and damage mechanism has been fulfilled; until there is assurance on finance for adaptation; until we see real ambition on climate action in accordance with the principles of the Convention."
"The UNFCCC has been called the 'Project to save the planet.' It has also been called 'saving tomorrow today'. We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now. Right here. … let Poland be forever known as the place where we truly cared to stop this madness….Can humanity rise to the occasion? I still believe we can."
A number of us from the ClimateFast team are fasting in solidarity. Ideas for safe fasting and different kinds of fasts can be found at http://climatefast.ca/about-fasting Will you join in for a day?
Please send a message of concern to your Member of Parliament, and to the Prime Minister.
You can send a letter to your MP modifying the sample letter on our website at http://www.climatefast.ca/sample-letter. Members of Parliament should be swamped with letters and phone calls by concerned Canadians. Please tell your MPs that you support sending funds to help those suffering from the devastation there. Humanitarian aid such as money and the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) are very important in the short term but we need longer term action too. We need a price on carbon, no more subsidies to fossil fuel companies, and a renewable energy plan for Canada. To underline the words of Yeb Saño, we must ensure mobilization of resources for the Green Climate Fund. The warming oceans will be causing more and more high magnitude storms – until we turn things around and get CO2 levels to drop, not keep rising.
The fossil fuel companies are a huge lobby for business as usual – which is very destructive to our planet and to human communities. We have to make ourselves a match for them – and we can.
Please invite your friends too! Send a message during COP 19!
The ClimateFast Team,
Hungry for Climate Leadership
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