Ted演讲视频:为何气候变化对人权保护构成威胁——玛丽·罗宾逊

玛丽·罗宾逊,爱尔兰共和国第7任总统及联合国人权事务高级专员。Ted演讲称:气候变迁并不公平。 富裕国家有办法对抗上升的海平面及枯萎的农田,全球穷人却因为危险的暴风雨、饥荒及失去土地而颠沛流离,人权受威胁。 玛丽·罗宾逊要求我们参与全球气候正义行动。

Mary Robinson: Why climate change is a threat to human rights

玛丽·罗宾逊:为何气候变化对人权保护构成威胁

A question I’m often asked is, where did I get my passion for human rights and justice? It started early. I grew up in the west of Ireland, wedged between four brothers, two older than me and two younger than me. So of course I had to be interested in human rights, and equality and justice, and using my elbows!

别人常问我一个问题,就是我对人权及正义的热情从何而来?这从很早就开始了。我在西爱尔兰长大,夹在四个兄弟之间,两个哥哥、两个弟弟。所以想当然尔我对人权、平等及正义产生兴趣,当然还要会用我的手肘!

(Laughter)

(笑声)

And those issues stayed with me and guided me, and in particular, when I was elected the first woman President of Ireland, from 1990 to 1997. I dedicated my presidency to having a space for those who felt marginalized on the island of Ireland, and bringing together communities from Northern Ireland with those from the Republic, trying to build peace. And I went as the first Irish president to the United Kingdom and met with Queen Elizabeth II, and also welcomed to my official residence — which we call “Áras an Uachtaráin,” the house of the president — members of the royal family, including, notably, the Prince of Wales. And I was aware that at the time of my presidency, Ireland was a country beginning a rapid economic progress. We were a country that was benefiting from the solidarity of the European Union. Indeed, when Ireland first joined the European Union in 1973, there were parts of the country that were considered developing, including my own beloved native county, County Mayo. I led trade delegations here to the United States, to Japan, to India, to encourage investment, to help to create jobs, to build up our economy, to build up our health system, our education — our development.

这些议题随着我、带领我成长,特别是在我当选为爱尔兰第一位女总统,任期在1990到1997年间。我在位期间,致力给予爱尔兰岛上觉得被边缘化的人生存空间,并促使北爱尔兰社群与共和国社群和解,试着建立和平。我是第一位拜访英国的爱尔兰总统,会晤女王伊丽莎白二世,并在我的官邸──我们称之为「总统的房子」──接待皇室成员,特别包括王储查尔斯王子。我知道在我当总统期间,爱尔兰的经济开始快速发展。我们是欧盟团结的受益者。确实,爱尔兰于1973年首次加入欧盟时,部分地区可说是正在发展,包括我心爱的家乡,梅奥郡。我曾领导商务代表团来访美国,还有日本、印度,鼓励投资、帮助创造就业机会、增进经济发展,加强医疗系统、教育──各种发展。

What I didn’t have to do as president was buy land on mainland Europe, so that Irish citizens could go there because our island was going underwater. What I didn’t have to think about, either as president or as a constitutional lawyer, was the implications for the sovereignty of the territory because of the impact of climate change. But that is what President Tong, of the Republic of Kiribati, has to wake up every morning thinking about. He has bought land in Fiji as an insurance policy, what he calls, “migration with dignity,” because he knows that his people may have to leave their islands. As I listened to President Tong describing the situation, I really felt that this was a problem that no leader should have to face. And as I heard him speak about the pain of his problems, I thought about Eleanor Roosevelt. I thought about her and those who worked with her on the Commission on Human Rights, which she chaired in 1948, and drew up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For them, it would have been unimaginable that a whole country could go out of existence because of human-induced climate change.

但我身为总统不用做的是去欧洲大陆买块地,让爱尔兰公民去那里,因为我们的岛就要沉到水里去了。我都不用考虑──无论我是总统还是宪法专门律师──因为气候变迁的影响造成的领土主权问题。但那是吉里巴斯共和国汤安诺总统每天早上醒来都要考虑的问题。他必须在斐济买块地当保单,他称之为「有尊严的迁移」,因为他知道他的人民有一天必须弃岛而去。我在听汤总统描述情况的时候,我真的觉得这不是领导人应该面对的问题。我在听他诉说这个问题带来的痛苦时,我就想到爱莲娜·罗斯福。我想到她和与她一同在联合国人权委员会工作的人,她于1948年当主席,并起草《世界人权宣言》。他们大概无法想象一整个国家会因为人为的气候变迁而消失。

I came to climate change not as a scientist or an environmental lawyer, and I wasn’t really impressed by the images of polar bears or melting glaciers. It was because of the impact on people, and the impact on their rights — their rights to food and safe water, health, education and shelter. And I say this with humility, because I came late to the issue of climate change. When I served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002, climate change wasn’t at the front of my mind. I don’t remember making a single speech on climate change. I knew that there was another part of the United Nations — the UN Convention on Climate Change — that was dealing with the issue of climate change. It was later when I started to work in African countries on issues of development and human rights. And I kept hearing this pervasive sentence: “Oh, but things are so much worse now, things are so much worse.” And then I explored what was behind that; it was about changes in the climate — climate shocks, changes in the weather.

我不是以科学家或环境律师开始关注气候变迁,北极熊或冰河融化的照片也没有特别打动我。我是因为这对人民的冲击,对他们权力的冲击──他们有权力获得食物、干净的水、健康、教育及安身之处。我以谦卑的心说出这些,因为我太晚关注气候变迁这个议题。我担任联合国人权事务高级专员是在1997到2002年间,当时气候变迁在我心中没什么地位,我不记得我针对气候变迁说过任何一场演讲。我知道联合国有另一个部分──联合国气候变化纲要公约──专门处理气候变迁议题。我是在之后,开始在非洲国家处理发展及人权问题时,才开始注意到。我一直听到大家都在说这句话:「噢!但现在情况更糟了,更糟了!」所以我就探究了背后的情况;原来是气候变化──气候冲击,天气改变。

I met Constance Okollet, who had formed a women’s group in Eastern Uganda, and she told me that when she was growing up, she had a very normal life in her village and they didn’t go hungry, they knew that the seasons would come as they were predicted to come, they knew when to sow and they knew when to harvest, and so they had enough food. But, in recent years, at the time of this conversation, they had nothing but long periods of drought, and then flash flooding, and then more drought. The school had been destroyed, livelihoods had been destroyed, their harvest had been destroyed. She forms this women’s group to try to keep her community together. And this was a reality that really struck me, because of course, Constance Okollet wasn’t responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that were causing this problem.

我遇见康丝坦,她在东乌干达组织了一个妇女团体,她告诉我她成长的年代,她在村庄里过着相当正常的生活,而且都不会挨饿,他们很确定四季会变化如常,他们知道何时播种、何时收割,所以他们有充足的食物。但是最近几年,就是我们对谈的时候,他们什么都没有,只有长期的旱灾,及随之而来的暴洪,然后就是更多的旱灾。学校被摧毁,生活被摧毁,他们的收获也被摧毁。她成立了这个妇女团体,试着不让她的社区分崩离析。这个事实真的给我重重的一击,因为当然,康丝坦无须为排放温室气体造成这个问题负上责任。

Indeed, I was very struck about the situation in Malawi in January of this year. There was an unprecedented flooding in the country, it covered about a third of the country, over 300 people were killed, and hundreds of thousands lost their livelihoods. And the average person in Malawi emits about 80 kg of CO2 a year. The average US citizen emits about 17.5 metric tons. So those who are suffering disproportionately don’t drive cars, don’t have electricity, don’t consume very significantly, and yet they are feeling more and more the impacts of the changes in the climate, the changes that are preventing them from knowing how to grow food properly, and knowing how to look after their future. I think it was really the importance of the injustice that really struck me very forcibly.

真的,我对今年一月马拉威的情况甚感惊讶。这个国家发生了一场空前的洪水,淹没了三分之一的国土,300余人因此丧命,成千上万人流离失所。普通马拉威人每年排放约80公斤的二氧化碳。普通美国人的排放量则约17.5吨。所以为此受到无比痛苦的人,不开车、不用电、也不怎么消费,然而他们却觉得愈来愈受气候变迁的冲击。这样的变迁让他们不知道该如何适当种植食物,该如何展望未来。我想真的是不公义的重要性强烈的冲击我。

And I know that we’re not able to address some of that injustice because we’re not on course for a safe world. Governments around the world agreed at the conference in Copenhagen, and have repeated it at every conference on climate, that we have to stay below two degrees Celsius of warming above pre-Industrial standards. But we’re on course for about four degrees. So we face an existential threat to the future of our planet. And that made me realize that climate change is the greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century.

我知道我们无法解决那些不公义,因为我们没有走向安全的世界。全世界的政府都在哥本哈根大会上同意,也在每一场气候变迁会议上不断看到,我们的暖化程度与工业革命前的标准相比,不可超过摄氏2度。我们却朝着上升4度去。所以我们面对着地球未来的存亡关头。这使我了解气候变迁的确是21世纪人权最大的威胁。

And that brought me then to climate justice. Climate justice responds to the moral argument — both sides of the moral argument — to address climate change. First of all, to be on the side of those who are suffering most and are most effected. And secondly, to make sure that they’re not left behind again, when we start to move and start to address climate change with climate action, as we are doing.

这因而引起我关注气候正义。气候正义能回答道德争论──无论是气候变迁争论的哪一方。首先,站在最痛苦最受影响的一方。第二,我们要确保在开始行动时,开始以气候行动对付气候变迁时,不能再遗忘他们,就像我们现在所为。

In our very unequal world today, it’s very striking how many people are left behind. In our world of 7.2 billion people, about 3 billion are left behind. 1.3 billion don’t have access to electricity, and they light their homes with kerosene and candles, both of which are dangerous. And in fact they spend a lot of their tiny income on that form of lighting. 2.6 billion people cook on open fires — on coal, wood and animal dung. And this causes about 4 million deaths a year from indoor smoke inhalation, and of course, most of those who die are women. So we have a very unequal world, and we need to change from “business as usual.” And we shouldn’t underestimate the scale and the transformative nature of the change which will be needed, because we have to go to zero carbon emissions by about 2050, if we’re going to stay below two degrees Celsius of warming. And that means we have to leave about two-thirds of the known resources of fossil fuels in the ground.

今天在这个非常不平等的世界,你会很惊讶有多少人被遗忘了。世界72亿人口中,有30亿人被遗忘。13亿人没有电可用,他们以煤油及蜡烛点亮房屋,这两者都很危险。事实上他们大部分的收入,都花在这种照明方式上。26亿人以露天炉灶煮饭,烧煤、木头或动物粪便。这造成每年四百万人口死亡,因为吸入室内烟雾,当然,大部分的死者是妇女。所以我们有个非常不平等的世界,我们必须改变「一切如常」的想法。我们不应该低估我们所需的改变规模及其转变能力。因为我们的碳排放量必须在2050年达到零,才能让暖化程度如预期保持低于摄氏2度。那意味着我们必须停止开采大约三分之二的已知资源,即化石燃料。

It’s a very big change, and it means that obviously, industrialized countries must cut their emissions, must become much more energy-efficient, and must move as quickly as possible to renewable energy. For developing countries and emerging economies, the problem and the challenge is to grow without emissions, because they must develop; they have very poor populations. So they must develop without emissions, and that is a different kind of problem. Indeed, no country in the world has actually grown without emissions. All the countries have developed with fossil fuels, and then may be moving to renewable energy. So it is a very big challenge, and it requires the total support of the international community, with the necessary finance and technology, and systems and support, because no country can make itself safe from the dangers of climate change. This is an issue that requires complete human solidarity. Human solidarity, if you like, based on self-interest — because we are all in this together, and we have to work together to ensure that we reach zero carbon by 2050.

这是很大的改变。而且这意味着,显然工业化国家必须减少排放量,必须变得更加节能,必须尽快发展使用再生能源。对开发中国家及新兴经济体而言,问题及挑战在于零排放成长,因为他们必须开发,他们的居民非常贫穷。所以他们必须开发,又要零排放,这是不同类型的问题。确实,世界上没有任何一个国家可以做到零排放成长。所有国家的开发都靠化石燃料,然后或许能转变成依靠再生能源。所以这是非常大的挑战,这需要国际社会全面支持,提供必要的资金和技术,系统及支援,因为没有一个国家能在气候变迁的危险下自扫门前雪。这个议题需要人类全面团结。人类团结,你也可以说是基于自我利益,因为我们同在一艘船上,我们必须合作以确保我们在2050年达到零碳排放量。

The good news is that change is happening, and it’s happening very fast. Here in California, there’s a very ambitious emissions target to cut emissions. In Hawaii, they’re passing legislation to have 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. And governments are very ambitious around the world. In Costa Rica, they have committed to being carbon-neutral by 2021. In Ethiopia, the commitment is to be carbon-neutral by 2027. Apple have pledged that their factories in China will use renewable energy. And there is a race on at the moment to convert electricity from tidal and wave power, in order that we can leave the coal in the ground. And that change is both welcome and is happening very rapidly. But it’s still not enough, and the political will is still not enough.

好消息是改变已经开始,而且发展得很快。在加州这里,设定非常远大的目标,以减少温室气体排放。在夏威夷,他们刚刚通过立法,要在2045年达到百分之百的再生能源。全世界的政府也抱着雄心壮志。哥斯达黎加承诺要在2021年做到碳中和。衣索匹亚承诺要在2027年达到碳中和。苹果公司誓言要让在中国的工厂使用再生能源。目前也有一场竞赛,要从潮汐能发电,如此我们才能停止开采煤炭。这样的改变既受欢迎也发展快速。但这还不够,而且光有政治决心还是不够。

Let me come back to President Tong and his people in Kiribati. They actually could be able to live on their island and have a solution, but it would take a lot of political will. President Tong told me about his ambitious idea to either build up or even float the little islands where his people live. This, of course, is beyond the resources of Kiribati itself. It would require great solidarity and support from other countries, and it would require the kind of imaginative idea that we bring together when we want to have a space station in the air. But wouldn’t it be wonderful to have this engineering wonder and to allow a people to remain in their sovereign territory, and be part of the community of nations? That is the kind of idea that we should be thinking about. Yes, the challenges of the transformation we need are big, but they can be solved. We are actually, as a people, very capable of coming together to solve problems.

让我再回头谈谈汤总统及吉里巴斯的人民。他们还是可以在他们的岛上生活,而且有解决方案,但是这要下很大的政治决心。汤总统告诉我他的雄心壮志,要把民众住的小岛加高,甚至让岛漂起来。想当然尔,这绝非吉里巴斯凭一国之力就能做到。这需要其他国家的大团结及支援,这也需要那种富有想象力的构想,如同我们想在空中建造太空站时的集思广义。但这不是很棒吗?创造这种工程奇景,让一个国家的人民能留在他们独立自主的领土上,并成为国际社会的一部分?这才是我们应该思索的计划。的确,我们所需的变革挑战很大。但是我们可以克服这样的挑战。我们身为人,其实很有能力一同解决问题。

I was very conscious of this as I took part this year in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1945. 1945 was an extraordinary year. It was a year when the world faced what must have seemed almost insoluble problems — the devastation of the world wars, particularly the Second World War; the fragile peace that had been brought about; the need for a whole economic regeneration. But the leaders of that time didn’t flinch from this. They had the capacity, they had a sense of being driven by never again must the world have this kind of problem. And they had to build structures for peace and security. And what did we get? What did they achieve? The Charter of the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, as they’re called, The World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. A Marshall Plan for Europe, a devastated Europe, to reconstruct it. And indeed a few years later, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

我对此非常清楚,因为我今年参加了1945年二次世界大战结束70周年纪念。1945年是非常不平凡的一年。那年,全世界面对了几项看似几乎无法解决的问题──两次世界大战的蹂躏,尤其是二次世界大战;随之而来不稳固的和平;整体经济复兴的需求。但是当时的领导人并不因此而退缩。他们有能力,他们的动力来自于绝不容许世界再发生相同的问题。他们必须为和平及安全建立架构。我们因此得到什么?他们完成了什么?联合国宪章,及一般说的布雷顿森林协定,世界银行,国际货币基金。欧洲的马歇尔计划,满目疮痍的欧洲,他们要重建此地。甚至在数年之后,还有世界人权宣言。

2015 is a year that is similar in its importance to 1945, with similar challenges and similar potential. There will be two big summits this year: the first one, in September in New York, is the summit for the sustainable development goals. And then the summit in Paris in December, to give us a climate agreement. The sustainable development goals are intended to help countries to live sustainably, in tune with Mother Earth, not to take out of Mother Earth and destroy ecosystems, but rather, to live in harmony with Mother Earth, by living under sustainable development. And the sustainable development goals will come into operation for all countries on January 1, 2016. The climate agreement — a binding climate agreement — is needed because of the scientific evidence that we’re on a trajectory for about a four-degree world and we have to change course to stay below two degrees. So we need to take steps that will be monitored and reviewed, so that we can keep increasing the ambition of how we cut emissions, and how we move more rapidly to renewable energy, so that we have a safe world.

2015年的重要性与1945年情况类似,有类似的挑战也有类似的潜力。今年会有两大高峰会,第一个会于九月在纽约举行,是永续发展目标高峰会。然后十二月在巴黎的高峰会要给世人一份气候协议。永续发展目标是为了帮助各国永续生存,与孕育万物的大地融合,不要忽略大地,摧毁生态系统,而是藉由永续发展与大地和平共存。永续发展目标会在全球所有国家于2016年元旦开始实施。气候协议──具有约束力的气候协议是必要的,因为科学证据显示地球目前的趋势为上升4度,我们必须改变方向以维持低于2度。所以我们必须采取能受监测及审查的步骤,才能不断增强野心,找出减少温室气体排放及加速以再生能源取代的方法,让我们有一个安全的世界。

The reality is that this issue is much too important to be left to politicians and to the United Nations.

现实情况是这个问题太重要了,不能留给政治人物及联合国处理。

(Laughter)

(笑声)

It’s an issue for all of us, and it’s an issue where we need more and more momentum. Indeed, the face of the environmentalist has changed, because of the justice dimension. It’s now an issue for faith-based organizations, under very good leadership from Pope Francis, and indeed, the Church of England, which is divesting from fossil fuels. It’s an issue for the business community, and the good news is that the business community is changing very rapidly — except for the fossil fuel industries —

这是我们所有人的问题,而且这个问题需要愈来愈强的动力。的确,环保人士的阵容已经有所改变,改变来自于正义的重要性。现在这是宗教组织的问题了,教宗方济各在这方面领导有方;当然还有英国国教会,他们抛售化石燃料资产。这也是商业界的问题,好消息是商业界的改变也非常快速,化石燃料产业除外。

(Laughter)

(笑声)

Even they are beginning to slightly change their language — but only slightly. But business is not only moving rapidly to the benefits of renewable energy, but is urging politicians to give them more signals, so that they can move even more rapidly. It’s an issue for the trade union movement. It’s an issue for the women’s movement. It’s an issue for young people.

即使是他们也开始稍微改变语气,不过只有一点点。企业不但快速行动利用再生能源,也促使政治人物能给他们更多信号,让他们能加快脚步。这是工会运动的问题。这是妇女运动的问题。这是年轻人的问题。

I was very struck when I learned that Jibreel Khazan, one of the Greensboro Four who had taken part in the Woolworth sit-ins, said quite recently that climate change is the lunch counter moment for young people. So, lunch counter moment for young people of the 21st century — the sort of real human rights issue of the 21st century, because he said it is the greatest challenge to humanity and justice in our world.

我非常惊讶,在我知道美国种族平权人士吉卜利·勒坎珊──他为「格林斯伯勒四」一员,曾参与伍尔沃斯公司静坐抗议事件──最近才指出,气候变迁是年轻人的民权运动。所以,21世纪年轻人的民权运动──21世纪真正的人权问题,因为他说这是对全世界人类及正义最大的挑战。

I recall very much the Climate March last September, and that was a huge momentum, not just in New York, but all around the world. and we have to build on that. I was marching with some of The Elders family, and I saw a placard a little bit away from me, but we were wedged so closely together — because after all, there were 400,000 people out in the streets of New York — so I couldn’t quite get to that placard, I would have just liked to have been able to step behind it, because it said, “Angry Grannies!”

我还记得很清楚,去年九月在纽约举行的气候变迁大游行,气势浩大,不只在纽约,全世界都是如此,我们必须乘势而行。我跟曼德拉开创的「世界长老」几位成员一起走,然后我看到一张抗议牌,离我不太远,但是我们被挤得很靠近,因为毕竟有四十万人聚集在纽约街头上,所以我无法靠近那面牌子,要不然我真的很想站在那块牌子后面,因为上面写着:生气的奶奶!

(Laughter)

(笑声)

That’s what I felt. And I have five grandchildren now, I feel very happy as an Irish grandmother to have five grandchildren, and I think about their world, and what it will be like when they will share that world with about 9 billion other people in 2050. We know that inevitably it will be a climate-constrained world, because of the emissions we’ve already put up there, but it could be a world that is much more equal and much fairer, and much better for health, and better for jobs and better for energy security, than the world we have now, if we have switched sufficiently and early enough to renewable energy, and no one is left behind. No one is left behind.

那就是我的感受。我现在有五个孙子。我身为爱尔兰祖母很开心自己有五个孙子,然后我思索着他们的世界,到时会是什么样子呢?当他们在2050年与九十亿人一起同享这个世界是什么样子?我们知道无可避免那将是受到气候限制的世界,受制于我们排放的温室效应气体;但是那也可能是一个更平等更公平的世界,更有利于健康、就业环境、能源安全的世界,比我们现有的还要好,只要我们能充分、及早改变为使用再生能源,并且不再遗忘任何人,不再遗忘任何人。

And just as we’ve been looking back this year — in 2015 to 1945, looking back 70 years — I would like to think that they will look back, that world will look back 35 years from 2050, 35 years to 2015, and that they will say, “Weren’t they good to do what they did in 2015? We really appreciate that they took the decisions that made a difference, and that put the world on the right pathway, and we benefit now from that pathway,” that they will feel that somehow we took our responsibilities, we did what was done in 1945 in similar terms, we didn’t miss the opportunity, we lived up to our responsibilities. That’s what this year is about.

正如我们从今年回首当年──从2015年看1945年,回顾七十个年头──我想他们也会回头看,2050年的世界也会回顾35年前,35年前的2015年,他们会说:「他们在2015年做的不是很好吗?我们真的很感谢他们下定决心要扭转情势,让这个世界走在正确的路上,所以我们今天才能受惠。」他们会觉得我们或多或少负起了责任,我们与1945年的人一样做了类似的事,我们没有错失机会,我们坚守了该负的责任。这就是今年的使命。

And somehow for me, it’s captured in words of somebody that I admired very much. She was a mentor of mine, she was a friend, she died much too young, she was an extraordinary personality, a great champion of the environment: Wangari Maathai. Wangari said once, “In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called upon to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground.” And that’s what we have to do. We have to reach a new level of consciousness, a higher moral ground. And we have to do it this year in those two big summits. And that won’t happen unless we have the momentum from people around the world who say: “We want action now, we want to change course, we want a safe world, a safe world for future generations, a safe world for our children and our grandchildren, and we’re all in this together.”

我总觉得对我而言,我非常钦佩的人说过一句话最能捕捉我的感觉。她是我的精神导师,也是个朋友。她死得太早,她有超凡的个性,是环境的伟大斗士:旺加里·马塔伊。旺加里曾说:「在漫漫历史中,总有一段时间,人类被要求转变到新的意识状态,以达到更高的道德标准。」那正是我们该做的。我们必须达到新的意识状态,更高的道德标准。我们必须在今年两大高峰会中做到这点。这不会实现,除非我们从全世界人民得到动力,大家发声说:「我们现在就要采取行动,我们现在就要改变趋势,我们要一个安全的世界,留给后人一个安全的世界,留给子孙一个安全的世界,我们要为此同心协力。」

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

(掌声)

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