Owners of the World

The most important speech I ever heard was given in February 2012 by former Irish President Mary Robinson, who admonished a group of assembled geographers to apply ourselves to the problems of disparity in the causes and consequences of climate change. A video of that speech and and my initial reactions are posted on this blog, and I refer to her work in several other posts.

Today her organization shared the words of some even more important speakers through its Facebook page, which pointed to this video as part of an article about the importance of broad participation in climate talks. In most global summits on trade, development, and the environment, a heavy police presence keeps the best-informed and most vulnerable people outside of the discussion. This video shows a different approach. Top government officials were brought together in genuine dialog with "the owners of the world" -- people from throughout the Global South who know first-hand the consequences of rapidly changing climates.