Climate change was one of the topics addressed by speakers on the first day of the highest level segment of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, which began this Tuesday at the headquarters of the international organization in New York City and will last until the 26th.
By María Josefina Arce
Climate change was one of the topics addressed by speakers on the first day of the highest level segment of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, which began this Tuesday at the headquarters of the international organization in New York City and will last until the 26th.
The planet is literally on fire, as UN Secretary General António Guterres summed up the environmental crisis facing the world, which represents a danger to humanity.
Opening the sessions, Guterres called on world leaders to urgently address global warming, biodiversity loss and pollution. He urged a shift away from dependence on fossil fuels and to promote the use of renewable energy sources.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also referred to this pressing problem in his first speech to the UN. He pointed out that the rainforest, the world's climatic pillar, is disappearing with all its life.
The discordant note in this regard was once again the Brazilian head of state, Jair Bolsonaro, who, in addition to using this platform for electoral purposes, claimed that his country is an example to the world in terms of environmental care.
A fallacy repeated by the president and that the statistics are in charge of denying. In the first semester of this year, deforestation in the Amazon broke all records.
The area destroyed is 80% larger than in the same period of 2018, the year before Bolsonaro came to power, according to a study by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, a Brazilian non-profit organization.
The reality is that the president has encouraged mining and the activities of the timber and agricultural industries in the largest rainforest on the planet, endangering its biodiversity and the survival of the indigenous peoples who inhabit it.
It is the opinion of many that Bolsonaro has tried to eliminate, neutralize and undo the laws and organizations in charge of protecting the Amazon.
Experts warn that the situation is increasingly alarming, because in addition to hosting numerous species of animals and plants and producing water, the Amazon absorbs billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which mitigates climate change.
Today the world is seriously threatened, among other serious problems, by climate change. There are countless warnings in this regard, ignored by many in order to continue increasing their profits. But as UN Secretary General António Guterres has stated, immediate action is needed if we are to leave future generations a habitable planet.
