NEW YORK (CU)_ The international community is less than 40 days away from the much anticipated UN summit on climate change (COP26), which is due to be held in Glasgow in early November. Over the recent months, many countries across the globe have been racing against the clock to accelerate their efforts to minimise their contributions to climate change. Therefore, it came as no surprise that the matter was among the key topics in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s address at the UN General Assembly this week.
In his address to his fellow world leaders on Wednesday (23 Sep), the British leader noted that it is time for humanity to “grow up” to tackle this global crisis, as he disputed Muppets character Kermit the Frog’s claim: “It’s not easy being green.”
“It is time for us to listen to the warnings of the scientists – and look at COVID, if you want an example of gloomy scientists being proved right – and to understand who we are and what we are doing,” PM Johnson told his fellow world leaders. “The world – this precious blue sphere with its eggshell crust and wisp of an atmosphere – is not some indestructible toy, some bouncy plastic romper room against which we can hurl ourselves to our heart’s content.”
He went on to compare humanity to an impetuous 16-year-old who expects someone else to clear up his mess. “We believe that someone else will clear up the mess we make, because that is what someone else has always done… We trash our habitats again and again with the inductive reasoning that we have got away with it so far, and therefore we will get away with it again,” he noted.
“My friends, the adolescence of humanity is coming to an end,” PM Johnson, said, adding that “We must come together in a collective coming of age.”
