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| Connection: Wangari Maathai spoke to students at a private school in Dedham, Mass., last month. Mark Thomson |
Wangari Maathai: 'Rich nations have a responsibility'
In an interview, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Kenya talks about the obligations of first- and third-worlders in climate change.
from the May 7, 2008 edition
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Rich countries, especially those that have contributed a lot toward the greenhouse gases, have a responsibility to help the poor countries get the technology that is needed. Toyota has its hybrid cars. You can't see these hybrid cars in Africa. And so Africa still uses a lot of the [older] vehicles, which are very inefficient. The rich countries have a responsibility, [but] the real responsibility lies on those developing countries. People cannot sit back and say, "We are not producing the gases, therefore we will let [others come help us]." Because when climate change comes, it's not going to punish those who did it selectively. Everybody will suffer.
What can Africans do on climate change?
Even though we are not contributing a lot [of greenhouse gases], that should not be an excuse for us to continue producing [them]. If we say that because not too many people have cars, it's OK for a government minister to have three cars, that is not really contributing toward a culture where we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Or that because we don't have too many cars, we don't need to cultivate a culture of using public means. One thing that we can do as a positive step is to plant trees.
What do conflicts like the one in Darfur indicate about the possible consequences of climate change in Africa?
One of the sad things about Kenya is that even as we are fighting over small pieces of arable land, we appear to be very unconcerned about the land we are losing to the desert. I'm quite sure that today, Kenya – if we spent a lot more time rehabilitating land that we are losing through deforestation, devegetation, overgrazing, and logging – if we were stopping all those destructive activities and instead investing in rehabilitating and reclaiming land that we are losing to the desert, we would not be in the crisis we are in. If we don't manage the resources we have, sustainably, the little that is left we will fight over.
When you address the G-8 countries – the major economic and military powers of the world – what do you tell them?
Debt continues to be a big burden. One thing that is always thrown at us is that "These are agreements that were made by your government." And we say, "These are governments that everybody knew were corrupt dictatorships, were not responsible to their people, did not listen to their people – you knew that and you did business with them." If you were doing business with a bank, and you knew the bank was irresponsible, its managers were corrupt, its managers were not reliable, you wouldn't do business with them. So why do you do business with governments that are corrupt, that are irresponsible, that are not accountable, and have no respect for their people and then come to the people and say, "You have to repay me the money I lent"?
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