Archbishop Desmond Tutu speech @ COP15 today

Earlier today Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson hosted an Oxfam-sponsored panel discussion on the international human costs of climate change. The event took place in the Bella Center

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Since his retirement, he has worked as a global activist on issues pertaining to democracy, freedom and human rights.

Also involved in today's event were UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, who was to be presented with the panel's findings, Oxfam Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs, and these climate witnesses organized by Oxfam:

* Constance Okollet: a farmer from Uganda whose village faced death and hunger after an unprecedented drought was followed by flash flooding in 2007.
* Shorbanu Khatun: a cyclone Aila survivor from Bangladesh now living with around 45,000 internally displaced people on the embankments of coastal area, Satkhira.
* Cayetano Huanca: a farmer from Peru, whose village is suffering water shortages and hunger due to glacial melt and a rising climate.
* Sharon Hanshaw: a hurricane Katrina survivor who lost her home and business of 21 years.

The below recording only totals about 25 minutes, but is broken up into 4 video segments. They are listed here in numerical order. Most footage is of Archbishop Desmond Tutu but also included is the testimony of Cayetano Huanca.

"Are We Going To The Moon, Then?" asks Onalenna

photo: Desmond Tutu with his grandchildren: Mungi Ngomane (left), 17, Onalenna Burris (center) 3 and Nyaniso Burris, 13. Flickr - TheElders.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 3-year-old granddaughter, Onalenna, was puzzled.

Her older cousin, Mungi, had just deflated a large, blow-up globe to demonstrate the imminent danger of climate change.

“Are we going to go the moon then?” Onalenna asked her grandfather.

“I don’t know, I will not be here,” Archbishop Tutu, 78, whispered in his granddaughter’s ear.

- from yesterday's New York Times article Bridging the Generation Gap on Climate.

The Elders, an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

The global Elders enlisted their grandchildren's help to warn of the perils of climate change. Martti Ahtisaari, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu invited their grandchildren to join them on October 29th to remind the world of the catastrophic risk of climate change to future generations. The seven Elders and their thirteen grandchildren from Asia, Africa, Europe and America met in Istanbul - the group ranged in age from 3 to 85.

Elders’ Chair, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "No one is immune – rich, poor, developed and developing countries. We are all in this together. I will probably be spared the worst effects of climate change but I worry for our children’s future and for the millions of people who are already being impoverished and displaced."

To read their list of goals for Copenhagen, go here.

To view a slideshow of photos from the event, go here.