“The Earth’s Environment and Human Development”

Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto at the Ethiopian Millennium Summit of Religious Fathers
(As prepared for delivery)

September 26, 2007
UN ECA, Addis Ababa

This small planet Earth and the state of the environment is our lifeline to our existence, to our survival, to our development and prosperity.  It is God’s will that we be good stewards of the resources and the environment of the Earth, to cherish its beauty and bountifulness and to protect it for posterity in fulfillment of our obligation and thankfulness to God.

We face grave challenges to our environment.  The problems that plague us, however, are man-made and therefore can be resolved by man.  We must all work with common purpose, firm commitment, and strong resolve to overcome our own shortsightedness and leave for our children what God intended for us, a planet which sustains us and helps us reach our goals of human development. .  How we treat our environment and, more important, how we respond to the challenges, tells us something about ourselves, our character and how we regard our fellow man. 

I would like to acknowledge the special role of faith-based institutions and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in particular, in responding to development challenges, especially in regards to the environment.

The image before you, taken from the moon, is our precious common home: Mother Earth.

The enormous environmental challenges we face are both global and local in origin.  Global warming is largely man made.  And mankind has the moral obligation to do everything in its power to stop the degeneration of the environment.   Civilizations have risen and fallen, often due to serious environmental crises.

The actions we take in this new millennium will determine the fate of our common home, planet earth, and the prospects for human development.  The Senior Science Adviser to President Bush recently said that without significant cuts in the output of carbon dioxide worldwide, the Earth may one day become "unlivable."

The message for today, then, is one of urgency.  If the countries of our planet take collective action now, we can make a significant difference in preserving our home for future generations.  It is not too late.  

As you did in the major crises of World War II and again in the current Global AIDS pandemic, the world’s religious leaders are playing a major role in the response to global warming.   Less than four weeks ago, senior religious leaders from several faiths met off the coast of Greenland – an island with so much ice that were it all to melt at once the sea would rise by seven meters.  Together these religious leaders prayed for an end to climate change and appealed for protection of the environment.  These leaders prayed in silence at the point where a melting glacier reaches the sea.  Their gathering was a call for all humanity to come together and embrace the challenges that life on this planet is facing.

The Vatican has stated that the Catholic Church's concern for the environment and creation goes all the way back to the Book of Genesis. In the stories of creation, God gave humankind the mandate to subdue and have dominion over the earth.  But he also expected humanity "to cultivate and care for it."  Humanity's dominion over creation "does not have to be despotic" nor should it be used for purely selfish and economic needs. Hurting the environment is a sin as it "is an offense not only against yourself, but against all others" whose lives depend on its resources.

We now face a global threat that has both regional and local impacts.  The question before us is whether or not we have the courage to set aside political differences, selfish economic objectives and come together to restrict our greenhouse gas emissions in order to stop disastrous global warming.

In a world as vast as ours, it is hard to comprehend how mankind has so radically changed the environment. But it is now an established scientific fact. The human physical presence on the planet has dramatically increased from just 250 million people at the birth of Christ to over 6.5 billion today. Humans and their livestock and pets together have increased from less than 1% of the total world’s vertebrates to as much as 98%. This leaves only 2 percent for all other vertebrates, from deer to elephants to lions and other small mammals. 

The earth's atmosphere is a very thin shell relative to the earth’s diameter. Think of a very thin coat of varnish on a large sphere. The key layers of the gases protecting us from the sun’s rays are only 30 KM thick and very vulnerable to changes in man-made generated greenhouse gases. 

In the last 200 years, for the first time in recorded history, CO2 concentrations have increased by a third.  This unprecedented increase in CO2 is trapping heat from the sun rapidly increasing global temperature.

If the concentration of this gas continues to grow, scientists predict tremendous irrevocable damage to our climate and environment, some of which may be rapid and violent.

We must act together to limit greenhouse gases by 2015.  Even if we meet this modest deadline, our planet’s average temperature will still increase by as much as 2 degrees Centigrade and the resulting climate change may continue for centuries in ways that we cannot fully predict.  This average increase of 2 percent is deceptive as temperature increases will be lower in areas near the equator such as Ethiopia, but much greater toward the poles. We are already seeing rapid increases in temperature in the North and South poles.

The evidence for the impact of global warming is mounting, and becoming progressively more extreme in the past 20 years. 

Temperatures are rising.  Eleven of the past 12 years are the warmest since reliable records began around 1850.  The U.S. and Europe recorded some of the hottest temperatures in the past five years this past summer. 

Sea levels are rising.  The oceans have absorbed most of the increased heat from global warming.  This warming has caused the oceans to expand and, combined with melting glaciers and ice sheets, sea levels are rapidly increasing.  The increasingly rapid melting ice on the North and South poles threaten even more significant and rapid sea levels increases that could force hundreds of millions of people to seek refuge at higher elevations.

Storms are stronger.  Warmer sea temperatures lead to stronger storms. The past two years have seen records broken in the number and intensity of typhoons and hurricanes.  The U.S. saw the devastation of one of its major cities, New Orleans, due to a category 5 storm that was fueled by unprecedented warm seas in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rain and floods are more intense.  Globally, the frequency of major flooding events has increased in Europe, Americas and Asia. In the last three weeks there has been higher than average rains in 14 African countries, including Ethiopia, with resulting massive flooding affecting more than one million people.  Ethiopia’s rains were some of the heaviest with rivers cresting earlier than last year.

Drought and desertification is on the rise. In 2003 Ethiopia experienced the worst drought in the country’s history.  13 million people were forced to rely on food aid.  While these disasters occurred every 10 to 15 years in the past, they are now almost permanent features.

Finally, increased temperatures are changing disease patterns.  For example, the land area affected by malaria is increasing. Rising temperatures mean that the malaria mosquito’s habitat is increasing in elevation. High altitude cities, such as Addis, could become malaria endemic if temperatures continue to rise.

A nation such as Ethiopia, which has been continuously inhabited for much more than two millennia, is not immune from serious environmental problems. These problems, complex and inter-related, include deforestation, degradation of soil, overgrazing, reduced plots of arable land and loss of biodiversity.

I'd like to speak directly to the issue of deforestation.  Deforestation underlies Ethiopia's challenges; indeed, it is a critical issue for all of Africa, Asia and other parts of the world.

Massive deforestation leads to a vicious cycle of environmental degradation.  As population pressure increases, particularly in the highlands, farmers intensively exercise deforestation for firewood, building materials and animal fodder.  The loss of forest cover leads to massive erosion.  The water that runs freely down the denuded slopes adds to flooding conditions and blocks natural springs with a heavy cap of mud.  The loss of trees means that nature's natural cycle is broken and soil is not fertilized through the breakdown of vegetation.

Deforestation means that the forest habitat is lost.  Ethiopia is home to a rich bounty of diverse plants and animals.  But of all species evaluated in Ethiopia, 244 are threatened to various degrees, including the Abyssinian wolf, the African elephant, the black rhino, various types of antelope and gazelle, the cheetah, eagles and  falcons, not to mention your national animal – the lion.  If the Lion of Abyssinia is to remain more than a symbol, if it is to remain a proud and magnificent creature unique to Ethiopia, we must preserve the forest home of the lion and its fellow creatures.  

Despite the environmental challenges faced by Ethiopia, it is important to acknowledge that as a nation it has several important comparative advantages.

First, scientific models project that countries close to the equator, such as Ethiopia, will experience far less increase in temperature than countries closer to the poles.

Ethiopia’s current pattern of low per capita energy consumption is a mixed blessing. A typical Ethiopian mule-herder has among the smallest carbon foot-prints in the world. But a family that burns wood and charcoal for all their energy needs is playing a different kind of havoc with the environment. 

Not all renewable energy is created equal and a fossil fuel, such as propane, may be better for the environment and lead to better economic development than biofuel such as forest wood and charcoal.  The Gaia stove project, which the Government of Ethiopia supports, is developing sugar-based ethanol cook stoves for use in homes.  These efficient cook stoves use renewable ethanol that is clean burning and less expensive than propane or subsidized kerosene.  And the stoves are child-friendly, leading to fewer burns.  Extensive use of these stoves could lead to healthier children, healthier forests, and healthier soil.

Ethiopia is also in the forefront of geothermal power.  This is clean energy that comes from using the steam in deep hot springs to power a generator.  These power generators can be small for a village or large enough to feed an electrical grid. You have one power plant on line in Aluto Langano.  Your scientists and engineers are on the cutting edge of renewable energy in Africa.  Ethiopia should encourage the private sector and the energy sector to diversify its energy resources by supporting geothermal energy production.

So, how else might Ethiopia address its environmental challenges? 

First, there is a need for Integrated Rural Development, as illustrated in the Millennium Development Villages in Tigray.  There is a need for capacity building, advocacy, policy enforcement, and natural resource management to address deforestation, soil and water conservation. There is also a need to pay greater attention to Ethiopia’s seriously threatened national parks and protected areas.

Ethiopia needs to translate its policies into action. Ethiopia has well considered policies on paper, but needs to improve the capacity and community support to implement them. We should not just look to donor assistance, but strive to facilitate market-led growth that helps preserve the environment. This should be combined with strict oversight by the government to ensure that abuses do not occur.

In my remarks today, I have tried to make the case that humanity should be “master” of the land and environment, and not “exploiter.”  We must understand and embrace our responsibility not only to help our fellow beings but also to care for the land, which preserves and enhances what God has given to man. 

There is a moral dimension to this problem and faith-based groups are a powerful force. It is the view of many religious leaders that Christian social ethics require action to care for God’s creation.

In the next decade, we will be asked what we did to respond to this crisis. We cannot let short-term denial and inaction destroy our world. We need to face the judgment of today’s youth and tomorrow’s future generations. Will we be able to say that we responded appropriately and in a timely manner? 

Ethiopia has a tradition of religious tolerance and collaboration in response to crisis. All religious leaders and religions have a stake in this endeavor.  Islamic clerics, Rabbis, Pastors, Priests and monks can lead the way to teach the urgent need for becoming good stewards for God’s creation.
We need to be in harmony with ourselves, with those around us, and with our environment.  This is the message of responsibility, accountability, leadership, and commitment to God’s Word.  Civilizations cannot afford to ignore long-term environmental degradation.  Global warming is a fact that cannot be refuted. We must adapt or we will perish.

While the task is daunting, there are many success stories in Ethiopia concerning nationwide improvements in health and development. For example, between 2000 and 2005, there has been a significant improvement in child health, an increase in educational attainment, increase in family planning, and major increases in care and treatment for HIV.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has made a difference.   Faith-based responses are emerging as leading the response to crises.  His Holiness, the Patriarch, Paulos, led a successful HIV/AIDS awareness of taking holy water with ART.   To paraphrase Al Gore, “It is our only home. It is a moral issue to secure our common future. We must do more or we face a day of reckoning. We must pray that we can get a concerted response in time.”

When God created man, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”  God gave us an enormous responsibility on the day of creation, but so far we have failed to fulfill that duty.  This must change.  We owe it to our Creator, we owe it to our fellow man, we owe it to all the living things of the earth, and we owe it to the earth itself, to be good stewards as God commanded.  This is not only an intelligent choice we must make, but it is a moral choice we should make.

Thank you.