20130902_GC
Source: Green Cross International
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1hjh7dypcY
Date: 02/09/2013
Event: Dr Rajendra Pachauri: "we have five minutes before midnight"
Attribution: Green Cross International
People:
- Dr Rajendra Pachauri: Chairman of the IPCC
Rajendra Pachauri: Thank you very much, Alexander, for your excessively generous introduction. It's a humbling experience to be here, with the greatest leaders that we have seen in our time, and I want to compliment and congratulate President Gorbachev for this initiative of having set up Green Cross, 20 years ago. May I also say that just as humanity's admiration for him and his leadership will continue to grow with time, so will the relevance of the Green Cross, in meeting some of the biggest challenges that we are facing, in this Earth.
I'd like to start by a quotation, by quoting someone who I think should have won the Nobel Peace Prize but never did - Mahatma Gandhi. He said "We may utilise the gifts of nature, just as we choose. But in our books, the debits are always equal to the credits." May I submit that humanity has completely ignored, disregarded and has been totally indifferent to the debits. Today we have the knowledge to be able to map out the debits and to understand what we have done to the condition of this planet.
I would like to submit before you that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which I have the privilege of chairing, has come out with four Assessment Reports and the fifth one is due to come out, beginning this month. And we have clearly brought out the impacts of climate change - not only as they have occurred, over a period of time, but also as they are projected to occur in the future.
Just to give you a few examples. If temperature increase in the future is going to exceed 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius, 20-30% of the species that we have assessed will face the threat of extinction. Also, the impacts of climate change are being felt on human health, on agriculture, in the form of sea level rise, and shortages and stresses, with regard to water, in different parts of the world.
What's even more alarming is the fact that there are extreme events and disasters which are increasing, as a result of climate change. And among these, I will only mention two. Extreme precipitation events - that means heavy rainfall or snowfall in a short period of time - and this we have projected will take place even in those countries where there's actually a decline in the average precipitation. In other words, even in those regions of the world where the average rainfall or snowfall is going to come down, most of it will occur in the form of heavy falls.
We've also projected that heatwaves are going to become far more frequent and far more in-depth - so much so, that in some parts of the world, where heatwaves which currently take place once in 20 years, will occur in the future once in two years. Now that is a major change, and I think we need to be concerned about it. And, President Gorbachev, I know that in Russia this is an issue of great concern, because you have been observing changes in that direction, in the past few years.
When I had the privilege of accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, I invoked an ancient phrase in Sanskrit, called "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", which means "the Universe is one family", and therefore we cannot isolate ourselves from anything that happens in any part of this planet. It would affect all of us, in some way or the other, some more directly, some more indirectly, but we will all be affected.
Now here I submit that we can bring about a balance, we can still, as his excellency President Gorbachev reminded us, that we have five minutes before midnight. And I think that if we were to carry out mitigation of emissions of greenhouse gases, there would also be huge co-benefits, in the nature of higher energy security, lower levels of local pollution, and therefore health benefits. There would also be enormous benefits, most likely on account of increased employment.
Now here may I submit, that this is the lesson that has to be learned and followed by every part of the world, including my part of the world - I come from India, where I think the Green Cross, I would like to submit, can make a major contribution. And I would like to invite President Gorbachev to come to India, possibly in February next year, when we would like to get the privilege of his presence and also [?] the Green Cross in India. My institute, which has a total staff of over 1200 people, some located in different parts of the world, would be privileged to host the Green Cross, if you would consider us worthy of that honour.
May I say that it's also in this spirit, very important, that we come up with new metrics by which we measure process, we come up with values that we have lost, and here I'd like to mention again what Mahatma Gandhi said, when he was asked what he thought about wildlife - he said yes, wildlife is vanishing in the jungles but it is increasing in the cities. And that's something we need to keep in mind - a new set of values. A new culture, which we seem to have forgotten, needs to be rediscovered.
And in this sense, may I end by saying that we have to come up with new measures and new metrics by which we measure human progress. We have become too focussed on GDP, with all its flaws, and I think the time has come to redirect our intellectual capabilities, led by an organisation like the Green Cross, in defining what human progress really is and how it can be measured. And let me end again by quoting Gandhi. He said "speed is irrelevant, if you're going in the wrong direction". Thank you. [Audience applause.]