This post is from Paul Yaqona, one of our Pacific representatives in Poznan.
The Poznan meeting has a bunch of ‘side events’ (including one by Greenpeace on our Forests for Climate proposal). I’ve been to the ‘Local Mitigation and Adaptation Measures of Indigenous Peoples’ side event – and it proved to be a fantastic eye-opener for most who were seated in the White-Tailed Eagle (believe it or not, that was the name of the event venue).
The event discussed the plight of indigenous people at the hands of climate change. There were presentations from rural Malaysia, Ecuador, Panama and Northern Canada. Many who went to the event were deeply moved by what they heard. One attendee even offered her organisation’s office space to continue the discussion after the meeting ended.
As a Pacific Islander, I too am deeply moved by these people’s stories. Rural communities could not understand why their forests, rivers and skies were changing for the worse. Why were their forests being logged relentlessly, ruining their valuable food source? Why was the weather changing so rapidly that they were becoming more vulnerable to diseases and infections they never knew existed? Pacific people will also face these devastating problems if nothing is done to help curb the gruesome effects of global warming and climate change. Don’t the industrialised countries care enough to realise that COP 14 should not just be about negiotiating figures and reduction targets?
Over at Oxfam, see how climate change impacts are wreaking havoc on some of the world’s poorest people in Bangladesh.
This is about people whose very existence is at stake. Leaders of industrialised nations need to hear these stories, get serious and care enough to make a difference at this meeting.
Paul Yaqona, Solar Generation
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