Bono and Gore in concert
Bono has joined forces with former US vice president Al Gore to urge world leaders to tackle climate change and global poverty together.
The pair shared the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January. They said environment and poverty should be seen as linked because the effect of climate change will have the most-dramatic effect in the developing world.“The climate crisis is unfolding more rapidly than the most pessimistic assumptions,” warned Mr Gore. He said: “In addition to changing the light bulbs, it is far more important to change the laws and to change the treaty obligations that nations have.”
The rich developing world consumes more resources, said Bono, but “the brunt of this climate crisis will be focused on the people in the developing world”. Rising sea levels would make it impossible to create the extra agricultural areas needed to feed a richer world.“The planet is in a precarious place right now and extreme poverty affects a billion people who are living on less than a dollar a day, scrambling for their life. We have a great life in the West.” Friends of the Earth say: At present, 20% of the global population consumes 80% of all the energy produced and natural resources extracted. This is not only unjust, it is unsustainable. If everyone were to adopt the lifestyle of a typical North American, we would need at least two more planets to produce the resources, absorb the wastes and maintain life-support systems.
The danger is that this is the lifestyle that most people aspire to.
We need to change our aspirations and attitudes to survive!
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