Canada Global (Web News) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres blasted global corporations for using ecosystems as “playthings of profit” and warned that failing to reverse course will have disastrous consequences.
In a speech before to biodiversity talks in Montreal, he declared: “With our bottomless desire for unbridled and unequal economic expansion, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction.”
Former Portuguese Prime Minister Guterres has made climate change his top priority since assuming office in 2017.
His vehement criticisms at the official start of the conference, known as COP15, demonstrated how much he cares about the fate of the world’s threatened plants and animals.
Before taking the dais, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is co-hosting the event with China, was interrupted by a group of about six Indigenous protestors.
They chanted for a while before being led out to scattered cheers, waving a banner that said “Indigenous genocide Means Ecocide” and “To save biodiversity, stop invading our land.”
As you can clearly see, Canada is a country where people are free to express themselves openly and powerfully, and in response, Trudeau remarked, “We applaud them for sharing their thoughts.
The gathering should not be confused with COP27, a previous round of climate-related UN negotiations held earlier this month.
One million species are threatened with extinction, one third of all land is badly degraded, and fertile soil is disappearing. Pollution and climate change are also hastening ocean degradation.
Land, water, and air are being choked by chemicals, plastics, and air pollution, while the heating of the earth brought on by burning fossil fuels is generating climate havoc, including heatwaves, forest fires, droughts, and floods.
Guterres simply stated, “We are abusing nature like a toilet.”
