On November 11, Yeb Sano, the Philippines’ delegate at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change now underway in Poland spoke out powerfully and poignantly, saying:
“To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of your armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian Ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels … to the hills of Central America that confront similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce … And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.”