Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the Greenpeace ship MV Esperanza in 2002
That's what Archbishop Desmond Tutu is asking the leaders of the most polluting economies, living up to his reputation for calling a spade a spade in, um, spades.
As they convene for the latest Major Emitters Meeting - one of George Bush's attempts at watering down international climate agreements - in Paris, the Archbishop is calling on the leaders to wake up to the impacts their emissions are having on the millions of people "living on the margins of global society". Ignoring the impacts of climate change, he says, is a luxury that only the "cushioned and cosseted" rich countries can afford, while the people who have done the least to contribute to climate change are suffering from it the most.
Here's his statement in full:
Climate change is real, and it is happening now. Over 80 per cent of the emissions currently in the atmosphere have been put there by the G8 group of rich countries.
But many rich world leaders have not, so far, responded to the climate crisis with the urgency required. Cushioned and cosseted, they have had the luxury of closing their minds to the real impact of what is happening in the fragile and precious atmosphere that surrounds the planet we live on. I wonder how much more anxious they might be, if they depended on the cycle of mother nature to feed their families. How much greater would their concerns be if they lived in slums and townships, in mud houses, or shelters made of plastic bags?
In large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, this is a reality. The poor, the vulnerable and the hungry are exposed to the harsh edge of climate change every day of their lives. The melting of the snows on the peak of Kilimanjaro is a warning of the changes taking place in Africa. Across this beautiful but vulnerable continent, people are already feeling the change in the weather. But rain or drought, the result is the same: more hunger and more misery for millions of people living on the margins of global society.
In the past 10 years, 2.6 billion people have suffered from natural disasters. That is more than a third of the global population - most of them in the developing world. The human impact is obvious, but what is not so apparent is the extent to which climatic events can undo the developmental gains put in place over decades. Droughts and floods destroy lives, but they also destroy schools, economies and opportunity.
It is time to stop this cycle of destruction. At the Major Economies Meeting in Paris, developed countries must commit to immediate action against climate change. The United Nations need to deliver an action plan to save the planet at the climate change conference in 2009. There is no time to be distracted from the urgent task to deliver this global rescue plan. The world is watching, and those who are feeling the impacts of climate change today, are expecting decisive action - now.
