Open your Hearts & Act - Elizabeth Wathuti at #COP26 | Climate Action | United Nations

The United Nations of Earth reporting on this issue: "Open your Hearts & Act - Elizabeth Wathuti at #COP26 | Climate Action | United Nations"
The topics: Remarks by Elizabeth Wathuti, Youth Climate Activist (Kenya), founder of the Green Initiative, during #COP26 "(...) I need to tell you what is happening in my home country. Right now as we sit comfortably here in this conference center in Glasgow, over 2 million of my fellow Kenyans are facing climate-related starvation. In this past year, both of our rainy seasons have failed, and scientists say that it may be another 12 months before the waters return again. Meanwhile, our rivers are running dry. Our harvests are failing. Our storehouses stand empty. Our animals and people are dying. I have seen with my own eyes three young children crying at the side of a dried-up river, after walking 12 miles with their mother to find water. Please open your hearts. This is not only happening in Kenya. Over the past few months, there have been deadly heat waves and wildfires in Algeria and devastating floods in Uganda and Nigeria. And there is more still to come. By 2025, in just four years’ time, half of the world’s population will be facing water scarcity. And by the time I’m 50, the climate crisis will have displaced 86 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone. … Please open your hearts. If you allow yourself to feel it, the heartbreak and the injustice is hard to bear. Sub-Saharan Africans are responsible for just half a percent of historical emissions. The children are responsible for none. But they are bearing the brunt. We are the adults on this Earth right now, and it is our responsibility to ensure that the children have food and water. I have been doing what I can. Inspired by the great professor Wangari Maathai, I founded the Green Generation Initiative, a tree-growing initiative that enhances food security for young Kenyans. So far we have grown 30,000 fruit trees to maturity, providing desperately needed nutrition for thousands of children. Every day we see that when we look after the trees, they look after us. But these trees and the life-saving fruit they bear will not survive on a 2.7 degrees Celsius warmer planet. The decisions you make here will help determine whether the rains will return to our land. The decisions you make here will help determine whether the fruit trees we plant will live or perish. The decisions you make here will help determine whether children will have food and water. I believe in our human capacity to care deeply and to act collectively. I believe in our ability to do what is right, if we let ourselves feel it in our hearts. So, for these next two weeks, let us feel it in our hearts. The children cannot live on words and empty promises. They are waiting for you to act. Please open your hearts, and then act. Thank you". [Excerpt]


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