Secretary General’s speech at Columbia University: “Not to mince words: the planet is broken.” Dear friends: This meeting is held in an unusual format as the last month of this unusual year begins. We face a devastating pandemic, levels planet is : Humanity is waging war against nature. That is a suicidal attitude. Nature always takes its reand has already begun to do so, with increasing violence and viciousness. Biological diversity is collapsing. There are a million species in danger of extinction. Ecosystems are disappearing before our eyes. Ecosystems are disappearing in plain sight. Desertification advances. Wetlands are being lost. With each passing year we lose ten million hectares of forests. There is an overexploitation of the oceans, which are drowning in plastic waste.

The carbon dioxide they absorb is acidifying

The seas. Coral bleaching is advancing, reefs are dying. Air and water pollution kills nine million people a year, more than six times the t toll of the pandemic. And as humans and livestock increasingly encroach on animal habitats and disrupt wild spaces, we are likely to see more viruses and other pathogens jump from animals to Vietnam Phone Number List humans. Let us not forget that % of new and emerging infectious diseases for humans are zoonotic. Today, two new authoritative reports from the World Meteorological Organization and the Nations Environment Program explain how close we are to a climate catastrophe. is set to be one of the three warmest years ever globally, even with the cooling effect of this year’s La Niña. The last decade was the warmest in human history.

Ocean temperatures have reached historic highs

This year, more than % of the world’s oceans more than temperatures rose by more than °C. Arctic sea ice levels in October were the lowest on record, and ice formation is now the slowest on France Phone Number List record. Greenland ice has  its long-term decline, with average losses of gigatonnes per year. Permafrost is melting, releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, normal. In the North Atlantic, the hurricane season has long-term average and a record for a full season.