Africa, the first victim of climate change, must now speak louder

The intense debate about dealing with climate change has mostly taken place between powerful players in the rich world. The battles between coal and oil companies, whose products cause climate change, and environmentalists have largely been fought in rich countries. The US, EU and China have driven negotiations. Every top-level conversation has been about what’s thought to be possible — and often what’s convenient — for these strong forces.

But as the countdown begins to the decisive Copenhagen climate talks in December, new voices are making themselves heard — the voices of the first victims of climate change. The UN lists 28 countries as most vulnerable to climate change, and 22 of them are in Africa.

IN LATE AUGUST, THE AU’S CHIEF negotiator at the Copenhagen talks, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said Africa would not only demand fair compensation for climate damage from the countries that caused the problem, but also demand that rich nations make a maximal effort to cut emissions. He has been joined by a chorus from around the continent calling for a new approach to dealing with climate change, one that takes poorer regions into account.

The new African assertiveness stems from new science. Even a few years ago, most developing nations viewed climate change as one more trouble to which they could, with sufficient aid, adapt. But after Arctic sea ice melted so dramatically in the summer of 2007, climate scientists began re-evaluating their predictions — the earth was reacting more violently than expected to even small temperature increases.

It became clear that for many countries basic survival was at stake — the low-lying Indian Ocean islands of the Maldives, though poor, have begun saving to buy a new homeland if and when their current home sinks beneath the waves. Kenya’s ongoing drought, with the deaths of thousands of cattle and devastating crop failures that have accompanied it, is giving us a vivid picture of what uncontrolled climate change might bring.

Many top scientists have realised there’s a number that the whole world needs to know. It’s the most carbon we can have in the atmosphere without causing terrible climate havoc. Since we’re already past that level, at 390 parts per million, it also implies that we need much swifter political action than governments have supported in the past — it means, among other things, a rapid effort to replace the burning of polluting coal with cleaner energy sources everywhere.

Normally, voices from places like Ethiopia, the Maldives and Kenya are sidelined in international forums. But this time it may be different, because a huge and determined civil society movement is building around the world to support just, fair and scientific climate targets. Tomorrow, October 24, 350.org will coordinate thousands of creative events, gatherings and rallies in almost every country in the world, to bring the number 350 to global attention.

Sharing the goals of 350.org will be prominent messengers, including the chairman of the International Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, and NASA’s top climate scientist James Hansen. Groups will gather in the world’s most iconic places — from Table Mountain in Cape Town to the tops of Himalayan peaks and even beneath the waves, where teams of Australian divers will be protesting against the endangered Great Barrier Reef. Across the planet, churches will ring bells 350 times that day; in synagogues, October 24 is the day the story of Noah is told. Buddhist monks and Muslims are joining in the hopeful actions.

EVERYWHERE, PARTICIPANTS WILL be worried about the fate of their own particular places — but they’ll also be standing up for the weakest people and places on earth, whose voices simply must be heard. People in almost all the nations of the earth are involved — it’s the same kind of coalition that helped make the word “apartheid” known.

I ask all Africans, and those around the world who care about Africa, to support climate fairness tomorrow by starting or joining an awareness-raising action where they live. It’s is a chance for us to act as global citizens, not as isolated individuals and lonely consumers. It’s a chance for world leaders to listen to voices of conscience, not to those who speak only about financial markets.

Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is a 350.org Messenger (http://www.350.org). He also heads the Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town