Translator: Daniel Moore Reviewer: Riaki Poništ
Let me start this talk with a lovely parable
of the beginning of time as the Inuit people see it.
Inuit mythology tells of a time when there was nothing in this world
except for a man and a woman.
One day, the woman came across a hole in the ice.
She put her arm in and felt something, so she pulled it out.
It was the tuktu,
or what came to be known to us as the caribou.
The woman set the caribou free
and ordered it to go out over the land and multiply.
In time, and as the Inuit nation grew, the land was filled with caribou,
and the Inuit hunted well.
They only hunted the big, fat, strong caribou, though,
since these were the caribou that provided them with the most food
and gave them the best energy.
But after sometime,
the sick and skinny caribou came to outnumber the fat and the strong,
and the herd grew weak, as did the Inuit themselves.
The Inuit decided to go back to the woman to ask her what to do.
The woman returned to the hole in the ice, hoping to discover the wisdom needed
to dispel the sickness and bring the herd back to good health.
That's when Amarok, the wolf, was born.
Now, it didn't take long
before wolf pack started to hunt and prey on the weak and diseased animals,
and now, overtime,
and through the intervention of the wolf,
the Inuit, once again, had the strong and healthy caribou
that could provide them with all the energy they needed
to survive in the High Arctic.
That's how, according to Inuit mythology,
the trinity of man, caribou, and wolf was born,
creating a natural and healthy balance
that could sustain all three species, for all time.
Beautiful story, isn't it?
I like to share this story with you
because of the many analogies that can be made to Western society.
Like the Inuits, we, too, are still hunters and gatherers,
that is, at least in one aspect, energy.
We roam the Earth in search for oil and gas,
our hunting grounds are enormous really.
It has provided us with great wealth,
but all this hunting for fossil fuels has caused many problems as well,
because much like the fat and energy-rich caribou,
the fat and large oil and gas fields of the world
are rapidly depleting.
And we are now left to scratch the earth
and try to replace them with skinny and meager new sources
like shale oil or tar sands.
The decline of conventional oil production over the last years,
has already, literally made us crack our stones and cook our soil,
so we can squeeze some drops of unconventional oil from it.
And because of it, the price of oil
has already quadrupled in the last eight to ten years,
severely weakening the global economy in many ways,
and with no end in sight.
But even worse is that all this burning of fossil fuels -
and you know this -
causes the greenhouse gases
that alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
It causes global warming and climate change.
It ruins our ecosystems.
And the expected severe and extreme events
such as droughts, floods,
storms, epidemics, famine, and so on
are a real threat to all life on the planet.
So it's safe to say that our current energy system
is as unhealthy to us
as the sick and weak caribou herd is to the Inuit.
So we desperately need better energy.
That's why science is telling us to stop hunting for fossil fuels
and start harvesting the clean and abundant energy
that the wind and the sun have to offer to us.
Now, of course, we know all this and we know what to do.
We even have all technical innovation at hand,
to make really large steps towards a fully renewable energy system.
And we know what's profitable too.
But somehow, it's not happening.
Somehow, we are not able to make this transformation
to a new energy system.
Now, there are all sorts of reasons for this:
one of them being a very poweful lobby of the fossil fuel industry,
the biggest industry that the world has ever seen,
and also the short term interest of politics and business in general,
and so on.
But the consequence of it all
is that we entered into this dangerous deadlock situation
that now further threatens our planet
and ourselves.
For the Inuit, now would be the time to turn to the wise woman
and ask her for a cure to the sickness in the system,
and so should we.
Luckily, we too have a wise woman we can turn to.
It's Lady Justice.
She embodies our collective wisdom of many centuries.
She has proven herself through time.
And she can point us away
out of this dangerous deadlock situation that we are currently in
by using the law.
And the timing for this is perfect.
Because it is now being recognized in both the international political arena
and in the legal realm
that climate change has become a worldwide threat to human rights.
To give you a quote of the United Nation's Cancun Agreement
on Climate Change of 2010,
and I quote:
Climate change represents
an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies.
And climate change related impacts have a range of implications,
both direct and indirect,
for the effective enjoyment of human rights,
inter alia, the right to life.
End of quote.
Now, this connection
between climate change and the right to life,
has also already being made by the European Court of Justice.
In one of its rulings, the European Court stated,
and I quote:
Emissions of greenhouse gases
are amongst the main causes of climate change.
It should be noted that climate policy
is also designed to protect the health and life of humans,
end of quote.
Our courts have already accepted the climate science,
and our courts have also already accepted
that climate change is not just about drowning polar bears in the Arctic,
but that it will have severe consequences for humanity.
The Supreme Court of the US has even added to this,
that because of the severity of the consequences,
that states, our governments,
cannot excuse themselves from doing nothing,
just by pointing to other states, and the emissions of other states,
because as the Supreme Court has said it, I quote:
A reduction in domestic emissions would slow the pace of global emissions,
no matter what happens elsewhere.
So, no matter what happens in China or India or any other country,
there is an individual responsibility for our states to bear
in the fight against climate change.
And then the court goes on to once more reiterate the danger of climate change,
by considering, and I quote again:
The risk of catastrophic harm, though remote, is nevertheless real,
end of quote.
So it may take some time, but in the end,
there is real danger of catastrophic harm.
Now you might ask that if there is still time
before catastrophic harm materializes itself,
then why should we act now?
Why is there no time to lose?
Why is this such an urgent problem?
Well, the answer to that question is,
because there is a certain inertia in the climate system.
It is important to understand that the changes
that we are witnessing today in the world,
such as the melting of the polar ice sheet,
are not the results of today's emissions.
They are the result of emissions of the past,
of emissions of up to around 1980.
What has been emitted after 1980 until today
still has to reach its full warming potential which will many more decades.
So we already know that there's much more warming coming,
that there's much more warming in the pipeline already,
that we can't avoid anymore
even if we were to stop using all fossil fuels tomorrow.
But on top of that, we also know
that we will be emitting a lot more CO2 in decades to come.
Because we are nowhere near
of becoming independent from fossil fuels.
Now that is why climate science
but also respected institutions
like the World Bank, the UN, the International Monetary Fund,
the International Energy Agency,
and even globally operating accountancy firms,
are now all ringing the alarm bells,
because they are pointing out to us
that if we don't start to face our fossil fuels now,
and do it drastically,
that we will heading for a world that will be four to six degrees warmer
by the end of the century alone.
Now that's catastrophe.
To give you one more quote, if I may, it goes like this:
Make no mistake: without concerted action,
the very future of our planet is in peril.
Unless we take action on climate change,
future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried, and grilled.
So, the time to act it's now, but it isn't happening.
Due to the inaction of our governments to adequately regulate greenhouse gases,
to avoid the dangers of climate change,
our governments themselves have now became a danger to society.
Now in such cases, the law and our courts
are the only remaining institutions left in our democracy to free ourselves
from the dangers that our governments pose to us.
So it's seems to me, ladies and gentleman,
that the time has come to hold our governments accountable.
Accountable for the totally inadequate climate policies.
Accountable for the lack of results
in the fight against dangerous climate change.
And basically, I'm here to say
that I think that judicial intervention
is now our only hope of really averting dangerous climate change.
That judicial intervention could be the lever that finally triggers
the full scale transformation to renewable energy and energy efficiency
that we've been waiting for so long now.
And that as such, judicial intervention can be a very positive force
for the protection of people and the planet.
Oh, let's not forget that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
was drafted in 1948.
It was drafted after the very dark years of the Second World War.
Tens of millions of people lost their lives during that war,
fighting for freedom and dignity.
And we came to understand
that disregard of human rights does indeed result in great tragedy,
and that therefore human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
and hence Universal Declaration.
But let's also remember that in the 1950s,
it were the courts of law that declared
that the school segregation system in USA was unconstitutional,
and it was because of these rulings, because of this court rulings,
that politics and society and people had to change.
Because it was now no longer allowed to make a distinction
between black and white American citizens.
And of course, this was a change for the better.
So, why then, in this hour of great need that we're currently in,
shouldn't we ask our courts to change society for the better once again?
Now, that's why two years ago
I had a dream of people taking matters into their own hands
and suing their governments to bring about change.
And I wrote a book about it,
a step by step blueprint of how it can be done
and why is necessary that we do it.
The book is titled "Revolution Justified."
And it's subtitled with the words: "why only the law can save us now."
And I hope these words will be self-explanatory by now.
Now the good news - you always have to have good news.
Now the good news is, that this week,
the first part of the dream has become a reality,
because two days ago over 800 Dutch citizens,
together with the Dutch Urgenda Foundation,
followed the script of the book
and started climate proceedings against the Dutch government
before the court in The Hague.
Now, the second part of the dream
is that we will start - and we're working hard on this -
to start similar proceedings,
with citizens and organizations in other countries,
against their governments.
And the good news here is that Belgium is already confirmed
and will be the second country that will have these climate proceedings,
and that Spain and the UK will possibly follow in the short term,
and hopefully, many other countries after that.
Now, the third part of the dream is, of course,
that courts will indeed intervene,
and that we will be successful
in the protection of people and the planet.
To conclude, let me just say this.
Where the Inuit needed wolf packs to prey on the diseased caribou
in order for the herds to grow strong again,
we need court cases
against our governments around the globe,
so we can start preying on a diseased energy system,
and start creating room
for energy efficiency and renewable energy to grow strong.
Now, it will take a global pack of lawyers
and a lot of support for legal action from you guys
and a lot of other people to make it happen,
but there is no doubt in my mind that this can be done.
So, if you want to get involved in this revolution by law,
or if you want to be more informed
about the topics that I just briefly discussed,
then please let me refer you to the website: revolutionjustified.org.
One last word, because I have a confession to make here.
And that is that I happen to like wolves.
So I won't mind personally to run with the pack,
stirring things up, breaking the status quo,
and shifting balance in society.
And I invite you become and to join the pack as well
and help us create a just energy revolution
through the use of the law.
Thank you.
(Applause)