watchingthedaisies

Book Review: Climate Justice by Mary Robinson

Climate Justice 1

In light of the Cop 28 Summit, I am reposting a very relevant book review.

Former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002, a UN Special Envoy on climate change 2014-2015, and more recently chairman of The Elders ( an independent group of leaders working for a sustainable planet founded by Nelson Mandela.)

“Climate Justice” is a thought provoking and inspiring book on the effects of climate change, and the way forward for our planet .

Synopsis

Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson was struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born into. Before his fiftieth birthday, he would share the planet with more than nine billion people – people battling for food, water, and shelter in an increasingly volatile climate. The faceless, shadowy menace of climate change had become, in an instant, deeply personal.

Mary Robinson’s mission would lead her all over the world, from Malawi to Mongolia, and to a heartening revelation: that an irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women, many of them mothers and grandmothers like herself. From Sharon Hanshaw, the Mississippi matriarch whose campaign began in her East Biloxi hair salon and culminated in her speaking at the United Nations, to Constance Okollet, a small farmer who transformed the fortunes of her ailing community in rural Uganda, Robinson met with ordinary people whose resilience and ingenuity had already unlocked extraordinary change.

Powerful and deeply humane, Climate Justice is a stirring manifesto on one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time, and a lucid, affirmative, and well-argued case for hope.

My Review

“Climate Justice” opens on November 11 2016 in Marrakech, where 48 of the world’s poorest countries pledged to have all their energy from renewable sources by 2050, a huge leap from the Earth Summit of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, which laid the groundwork for the Kyoto Protocol of 2005.
Testimonies from those who have suffered the worst effects of climate change and their endeavors to educate others to help themselves, form the bulk of this inspiring and informative book. From Uganda to Mississippi, Alaska to New Brunswick, the message is the same:

“We ALL have the power to implement positive global change, to ensure the future of our planet.”

21 comments

  8. Wow Brigid, long time.
    I was thinking of you earlier when visiting my acupuncturist Dr Wu re back probs.
    Thought I would take a peek here.
    Thank you for sharing such an interesting post.
    Hope you are well and take care.
    🌻

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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