The Faces of Climate Change

COP16 is an amazing event filled with many intriguing sessions and debates such as climate change impacts on health care and Kyoto Protocol discussions. These events really work to enlighten and spark multiple emotions in those who are observing, but the thing that impacts the individual attending COP16 the most, in my opinion, has to be the faces they see here. COP16 brings in people from all corners of our planet, and it is here that all the cultures can come and share their cultures, traditions, and make it clear to the world that they do exist and have voices to be heard. Myself along with two other SESEF delegates had the opportunity  on Thursday to attend a session entitled, "The Human Faces of Climate Change".  It was in this session that we learned about the nations of Kiribati and Tuvalo, Pacific Island nations that are experiencing, in a very dramatic way, the implications of climate change. Both Kiribati and Tuvalo are atoll islands, which means that they are a set or single island that encircles a lagoon. These atolls are commonly not very high above sea level, an example being Tuvalo's highest point which is just three meters above sea level.

The panel of Pacific nation islanders. From left to right: Claire Anterea, Peter Embassem, Luana Bosanquet-Heays,
Tony (the MC) and Maria Timon.

Peter Embassem came to the conference to speak about his home country of Tuvalo, and before he started his presentation he informed the audience that the majority of his powerpoint was going to be made up of pictures. At first the slides were of the beautiful island from which he came. It was picturesque; beautiful beaches, lush vegitation and blue ocean. But as his speech progressed he started to inform us of the ways that climate change is directly effecting Tuvalo. They are experiencing king tides and more common cyclones than ever before. When king tides hit Tuvalo they don't only come at the islands on both shores but they also bubble up from underneath the islands. When these tides hit they flood many parts of an island, which puts the majority of the population's houses at least halfway underwater. Along with the loss of their houses during the king tides these Pacific islanders have to deal with contaminated drinking water, because when the tides come up they contaminate the wells which makes the fresh water almost completely undrinkable. As for cyclones, when they hit the islands of Tuvalo, the impacts are devastating. Imagine the picturesque piece of dreamland I described earlier, with it's sandy beaches, beautiful vegetation and crystal clear ocean. Now take that wonderful island and remove everything but the rocks and sand. When a cyclone hits these small islands it destroys almost all vegetation, due to the poor soil and mass amounts of sand, so storms leave these islands with little more then rocks. Similar impacts affect the nearby island of Kiribati. A young woman from the island by the name of Claire Anterea brought this nation to our attention.

Claire Anterea performing a native dance from Karibati.

She was quick to tell us a most disturbing and unfortunate fact. The Pacific Islands have the highest infant mortality rate in the world. We were told that because of the droughts they are experiencing, the inconsistent supply of fresh water, and a variety of diseases, infant mortalities are becoming quite common. Claire even had her own personal story to tell related to this statistic. Her own brother had just recently lost not only one but two of his children. Yes, the Pacific Islanders' presentation was eye opening and crushing, yet the Islanders themselves were still able to smile, joke, and show their hope. They shared dances and songs from their homelands, showing us that they are willing to fight for their cultures and that their countries and their cultures are worth saving. One of the women from the Islanders performed a dance for the observers entitled "We Three", which represented the three main groups of Pacific Islanders (Micronesia, Polynesia and Malenasia).

Luana Bosanquet-Heays performing the "We Three" dance.

Hear the song for "We Three" here. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSl1iTHlQM4

When the session ended the group sang a song of farewell to the observers and then ended with big smiles full of hope. When they had finished the SESEF delegates and myself approached the podium and requested an interview with Claire Anterea from Kiribati. During the interview Claire passionately expressed her views on climate change and how it is affecting her home, as we had just seen in the presentation. 

Claire Anterea during her interview with Nikki.

As we left Claire kept thanking us for attending the session.  This gesture and the overall way the Islanders presented themselves and their information gave the session a sort of personal feel. The observers could actually connect and relate to the presenters even though the majority of us had never experienced problems as dramatic. Leaving a session like this one puts you in a sort of melancholy, abstract mood. You don't exactly know what to think, at least this is how Nikki, Kia and myself reacted to what we had just witnessed. We reconvened with the rest of the SESEF delegation, with rants of "the most amazing session at the conference" and tried to explain to them exactly what we had experienced. 

After sharing with our peers we broke up into two groups. Each group was equipped with some of SES's beautiful audio recording equipment and a person with a camera. Our mission: Get interviews. I was with a group of four, including Nicole, Brooke, Austin and myself. We set off through the booths in search of interesting individuals to interview. When we came to the 350 booth something strange was happening. Lord Christopher Monckton, one of the world's most prominent anthropogenic climate change skeptics, had started to be interviewed by a mob right next to where YOUNGO had been doing an action. 

YOUNGO members having people come vote against sea level rise.

One of the YOUNGO (Youth related NGOs) members, Reed Aronow, was proceeding to yell and invite passers by to come and vote against sea level rise in hopes of drowning out Monckton. Coming across all of this action definitely caught us off guard and left us in a bit of a shock, but as soon as I came to my senses I was quick to disregard Monckton and join Reed in a chant saying, "1.5 degrees in the text. Right here. Right now!" The two of us chanted and brought in people to vote against the rise of sea levels. Eventually we had drawn a crowd and the cameras left Monckton for us. It didn't take long for the rest of the youth to join in and turn our little chant into a song. People came from all over the center to hear us and record us. In the end we had drowned out Monckton, reducing his crowd to three, two of whom were debating him and the third person.  Seeing the faces of the people who came to watch us speak out about climate change and seeing the faces of the youth surrounding me is something I'll never forget. COP16 brings together people from all sorts of cultures and backgrounds, but they come together for one central reason: the changing climate of their earth. Peter Embassem,

 the man from Tuvalo, ended his presentation with a quote which really hit hard for me and it is how I am going to end this entry. "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

Thank you for reading.



Written by: Anna C.