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Celebrities to lead TED global call to act on climate crisis
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The Pope and Prince William will
join activists, artists, celebrities and politicians on Saturday at a free
streamed TED event aimed at unifying people to confront the climate crisis.
The Countdown program will kick off on the TED channel at YouTube starting
at 8 am (1500 GMT) in California and feature 50 speakers, the pontiff and the
second-in-line to the British throne among them.
“You’ll be hearing from all different kinds of folks from all walks of
life; from the front lines to the grassroots to the treetops,” actor Mark
Ruffalo, who is among the Countdown hosts, said during a briefing ahead of
the event.
“They’ll be talking a little bit about the problems and a lot about the
solutions.”
Countdown will last about five hours, for the first time providing a free
look at the blend of arts, ideas, innovation and enlightenment that are
trademarks of prestigious TED conferences.
“Climate can’t wait,” said TED head Chris Anderson.
“If there’s one thing that we surely must learn from this year, it’s that
when scientists warn you that there is something terrible coming, you have to
pay attention.”
While Countdown will spotlight science about the climate crisis and how it
is harming the health of the planet, it will be geared to things people can
do to stop it, according to organizers.
For example a talk will be given by the mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone
where there is a project to plant a million trees to protect land from floods
and absorb carbon dioxide.
Speakers also include European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen,
teenage climate activist Xiye Bastida, actor Chris Hemsworth, and former US
vice president Al Gore.
Hundreds of smaller “TEDx” events are planned around the world to
encourage local action.
– Climate apolitical –
Countdown is billed as a global initiative to champion and accelerate
solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action.
It comes as some world leaders have weaponized the issue for political
gain.
US President Donald Trump triggered outrage recently by suggesting global
warming will reverse itself and dismissing the climate crisis as a cause of
ferocious fires engulfing swaths of the US West.
Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, warned the topic has been
“politicized.”
“But, democracies have a way of changing the leaderships in those
countries,” she said.
Droughts, floods, wildfires, and other disasters linked to climate change
don’t check political affiliations before bringing ruin to people’s lives,
she noted somberly.
“This is about responsibility to the human race, what unites us not what
divides us,” she continued.
Ruffalo said the people refusing to find solutions to the climate crisis
“will be the ones we see refusing to respond to the reality of the pandemic
in a scientific and reality-based way.”
– Clarion call –
Countdown organizers have set a goal of mobilizing governments and
citizens to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half over the next decade and get
to net-zero carbon pollution by the year 2050.
“You can think of Saturday as a clarion call, a warning that we must
reignite our efforts to take on this daunting challenge,” Anderson said.
“But it’s also a day of hope that there is a pathway to do this and we
must walk down it together.”
Since starting as an intimate gathering in California 36 years ago, TED
has grown into a global media platform with a stated devotion to “ideas worth
spreading.”
TED has a massive following for its trademark presentations in which
speakers strive to give “the talk of their lives” in 18 minutes.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0906 hrs