"[W]e must move in a common effort of many nations to reclaim the seas, to monitor regional and global pollution and inadvertent weather modification from all sources...to develop our understanding of the ethical foundation of environmental choices, and to take other measures that fully recognize the extend of our dependence upon a bounded and wounded earth.”
Our Quote of the Week echoes the sentiments of millions around the world who took the streets during Friday’s climate strike and Saturday’s International Day of Peace actions. With the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit yielding great attention but few commitments, we join those millions of people who are asking political leaders to address the many threats posed by global climate change.
Sargent Shriver gave this speech 44 years ago. He stressed a need for international collaboration and spoke about science and the environment in ways that seem remarkably prescient today, particularly in his inclusion of what he referred to as “inadvertent weather modification from all sources,” or what we would refer to today as climate change. Among other things, his words underline the fact that knowledge about the risks of human-induced climate change is not new.
The health, safety, and well-being of populations around the world, particularly those who are already most vulnerable to poverty and conflict, rely on our collaboration and collective action. As the planet continues to warm, we will face increasing food shortages, more severe weather events, dirtier air, higher mortality and extinction rates, rising seal levels, and increasing acid levels in our oceans.
Our situation today is serious, but it’s important to stay positive, take action, and work together. Let us find inspiration and motivation in leaders old and new. From Sargent Shriver to 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and to many, many others in between, we have examples all around us of people who raise their voices and act to make the world a safer, healthier place for all of us. Let us support them and let us join them in a push towards a more peaceful world.
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