It’s not everyday that one gets to hear directly from a head of state. So it was with some anticipation and excitement that I settled in for EcoSummit’s Thursday plenary with Olafur Grimsson, the President of Iceland. Mr. Grimsson, who is serving his 5th term and is the nation’s longest serving President (he’s only their 5th since independence from Denmark in 1944), is a world leader on the issues of climate change and renewable energy.
I was impressed right away. The first thing he said was that it was an honor for him, “a mere President,” to follow Rattan Lal, the Ohio State University Professor of Soil Science, whom he called a “brilliant scientist.” Mr. Grimsson then launched into a rousing speech about climate change. He said that despite everything – the scientific consensus, the meetings, the speeches, and even Al Gore – the world was still far from taking the necessary actions to address the problem. He said the world has failed to recognize that its dependence on ice and on the “three poles” that harbor it (including the Himalayas as the “third pole”).
He wondered what it would take to get the world to its “A-ha Moment.” He asked why, when we (humans, not just Americans) celebrate NASA for going to the Moon and to Mars, we don’t act on the bad news they present on climate change. Then, recounting a recent visit to his country from a group of Chinese scientists that had traveled through the newly passable Arctic Ocean, he suggested the A-ha Moment was upon us. The moment, he argued, should be that China, long one of the major obstacles to international agreement on climate change, was now ready to not only get serious on the issue, but to lead. He called it a “new reality” on climate change. The world must see the Chinese movement on climate change as the final evidence it needs to act. Grimsson said the Chinese were issuing a “wake-up call” to the West. The key question now, he explained, is whether the West will answer. He added, "there are no more excuses."
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.