{"id":4799,"date":"2020-01-29T23:10:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T23:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euromenaenergy.com\/?p=4799"},"modified":"2020-01-29T23:10:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T23:10:21","slug":"tears-flow-as-politicians-fail-to-dispel-climate-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/?p=4799","title":{"rendered":"Tears flow as politicians fail to dispel \u2018climate darkness\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Standing before a captive audience at this month\u2019s climate change conference in Madrid after entertaining them with a dance in her traditional Pacific island costume, 21-year-old Tabita Kaitamakin Awira Awerika\u2019s smile turned to angry tears.
\nThe student from Kiribati spoke of her anguish at the threat to her low-lying atoll nation from rising sea levels and ferocious storms \u2014 and the determination of her people not to let global warming chase them from their \u201cbeloved motherland\u201d.
\n\u201cI am very sad to say that as the youth of many developed nations are enjoying their daily activities, our fellow youth in Kiribati are worrying about what the future holds for us,\u201d she told an event on the sidelines of the UN talks.
\n\u201cMy leaders have voiced these concerns to the global community over and over but no one is listening \u2014 are we that insignificant for our cries to fall on deaf ears?\u201d
\nEmotional exhortations like this are being heard more often at the annual climate summit, especially from young people, as climate change fuels extreme weather, glaciers melt, and the world\u2019s oceans creep inexorably higher.
\nIn Madrid, veterans of the \u201cCOP\u201d meetings \u2014 known as a place where suited officials spar over complex agreements \u2014 said they had never seen such an outpouring of grief, anxiety and sorrow.
\nBill Hare, founder of climate science think-tank Climate Analytics, told US news show \u201cDemocracy Now!\u201d he had seen more tears in Madrid than at the previous 24 summits, dubbing it \u201cthe crying COP\u201d.
\nRepresentatives of small island states were \u201calmost panicking\u201d at the prospect of their homelands disappearing under the waves, while young people were \u201cangry and upset\u201d at a lack of action by politicians, he said.
\nDuring two fractious weeks of talks, a handful of major polluting states resisted pressure to ramp up efforts to combat climate change, angering smaller countries and a growing protest movement that is pushing for emergency action.
\nThe climate change talks have experienced a \u201cbig shift\u201d away from formality in recent years, said Ashlee Cunsolo, director of the Newfoundland-based Labrador Institute of Memorial University and an expert on \u201cecological grief\u201d.
\nTuvalu negotiator Ian Fry grabbed the world\u2019s attention at the 2009 Copenhagen talks by saying he had woken up crying, telling delegates tearfully, \u201cthe fate of my country rests in your hands\u201d.
\nAt the 2013 talks, Philippines negotiator Yeb Sano made headlines when he broke down speaking of the destruction wrought on his country by Typhoon Haiyan.
\nCunsolo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation people were increasingly \u201crefusing to separate science and feeling\u201d.
\n\u201cMore and more, they are not embarrassed and not ashamed to share the emotions they are experiencing around these changes,\u201d she said.
\nOne key driver is rising exposure to climate and weather-linked disasters, whether Australia\u2019s bushfires, flooding in the United States or Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, she added.
\nAnd then there are communities experiencing longer-term deterioration in their native environments, including Canada\u2019s Inuit, who are struggling with losing the ice and what that means for their hunting-based lifestyle and food security.
\n\u201cThe lived experience that people have and are sharing publicly on social media and in media articles has so far outstripped the research that we have,\u201d said the academic who co-authored a study on the subject, published in April 2018.
\nThe paper identified \u201cecological grief\u201d as \u201can underdeveloped area of inquiry\u201d and warned it could \u201cbecome more common as climate impacts worsen\u201d.
\nYet while community groups have sprung up to help people cope with their feelings, and some health professionals are developing guidelines on mental health and climate change, efforts to quantify and tackle the phenomenon are lagging behind, Cunsolo and others said.
\n\u201cIf people don\u2019t hear about it, and don\u2019t talk about it, and it only grows within, then that is a recipe for disaster,\u201d said Pablo Suarez, associate director for research and innovation at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
\nAt a parallel event in Madrid, he ran a workshop introducing development professionals to the concept of \u201cclimate darkness\u201d \u2014 a term he prefers to \u201cgrief\u201d which points to something that has already happened and is not a springboard for action, he said.
\n\u201cA little bit of light can undo darkness,\u201d he said. \u201cEmotional pain is a signal: these tough times are full of opportunities for heroic generosity and proactive humanitarian deeds.\u201d
\nAs a global network of volunteers, the Red Cross is aware of the stress climate-related crises put on its humanitarian workers, as well as those directly affected, and plans to start providing better psychological support for them, Suarez said.
\nCunsolo, meanwhile, said she and colleagues want to conduct a national survey across Canada next year, with a focus on vulnerable groups like farmers and indigenous people, with the aim of producing data that can be useful to decision makers.
\nIn drought and fire-hit Australia, researchers are planning a similar effort, she noted.
\nSuarez, who has devised games and worked with cartoonists to help people understand climate risk, said one reason why major climate change events like the COP fell short of public expectations was that they are \u201cdevoid of inspiration\u201d.
\n\u201cWhy are COPs designed to discard the emotional richness needed to make us aim for more? Yes, climate negotiations are deadly serious, but they shouldn\u2019t be deadly tedious,\u201d he added, calling for an injection of art and humour.
\nIn the absence of a collective push to act, however, the prospect of a ruined planet can lead to sadness and paralysis, he noted.
\nIn Madrid, Marie Christina Kolo, a young eco-feminist from Madagascar, welled up as she spoke of village girls being pushed into early marriage because their parents could no longer earn enough from fishing in the African island nation\u2019s warming seas.
\n\u201cI hope (the negotiators) will not only consider data and percentages, but they will consider our lives,\u201d she told journalists. \u2013 Thomson Reuters Foundation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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