Categories: AFRICALatest

African Climate Activists Pressure Leaders To Make ‘Life or Death Choices’

A woman holds a plackard as she looks on during a demonstration by International Extinction October Rebellion outside the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in Pretoria, on October 11, 2019. - People gathered to demonstrate against the collective failure of the global club of polluters to meet the challenge of global heating and the climate crisis. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)

Leading Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate on Wednesday said climate change is forcing world leaders to make “life or death” choices, causing them to treat it as an urgent crisis. Vanessa Nakate was speaking at an online conference to mark the 89th anniversary of the Nobel Prize winner in Peace and Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“Climate change is a nightmare that affects every sector of our lives,” said Nakate, naming hunger, conflicts, child marriages, and violence against women as some of the crisis’ knock-on effects. It is time for leaders to leave their comfort zones and see the danger that we are in and do something about it,” she told attendees of an online lecture to mark the 89th birthday of South Africa’s retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“This is a matter of life and death,” she warned. “We are showing you the direction that two choices present to you today: life and death”.
She implored leaders to “choose life for the people and for the planet.”

Nakate’s activist role received a paradoxical boost earlier this year when she was cropped out of a news photo of young campaigners including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

An uproar ensued because the 23-year-old had been the only black person and only African in the picture.

Ayakha Mlithafa, an 18-year-old South African campaigner, said Wednesday that Nakate’s removal from the picture had stoked her “drive to advocate for more inclusion and diversity into the climate movement.”

Top Zimbabwean businessman and philanthropist Strive Masiyiwa said young activists “mirror” Tutu.

The clergyman is still regarded as South Africa’s moral beacon for standing against apartheid, using his influence to mobilise against white minority rule including advocating for international sanctions.

Seen from today’s viewpoint, the campaigners’ task might appear “impossible” — just like Tutu’s long struggle of “midwifing a nation, South Africa through apartheid and into reconciliation,” Masiyiwa said.

Follow us on:

AriseNews

Leave a Comment
Share
Published by
AriseNews
Tags: African climate activists pressure leaders to make "life or death choices"
4 years ago

Recent Posts

Nigerian Government, Labour Sign Agreement on New Minimum Wage of N70,000

NIgeria's federal government and organised labour have signed an agreement on the new minimum wage…

2 hours ago

Israeli Air Strike Kills Senior Hezbollah Commander in Beirut

A significant escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has occurred following an…

2 hours ago

Ayra Starr, Scorpion Kings, Tinariwen to Feature At 2024 CANEX WKND Concert

Africa’s largest gathering of creative industry professionals, CANEX WKND, is taking place from October 16-19,…

2 hours ago

Sri Lankans Vote In Crucial Presidential Election Amid Economic Turmoil

Sri Lankans are casting their votes in a significant presidential election on Saturday, the first…

2 hours ago

Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang Denies Defection Rumours, Reaffirms Loyalty to PDP

Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State has reaffirmed loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),…

2 hours ago

NNPC Renews Investor Talks To Resume $30bn LNG Projects

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has resumed discussions with investors towards bringing back…

2 hours ago