Our thoughts and prayers go out to communities that have been impacted by the recent floods in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia and the West Coast town of Westport in the South Island of New Zealand. It was not that long ago that the Southern provinces of the Philippines endured a super-typhoon right before Christmas.
As if the pandemic was not enough, we have weathered through bushfires, earthquakes, typhoons and floods in the past two years. We have had wake-up calls from all directions to take concrete action on the environment and climate change.
During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Tuvalu’s Minister of Justice, Communications and Foreign Affairs–Hon Simon Kofe gave a speech recorded from an area that used to be dry land.
“We are sinking, but so is everyone else. We cannot wait for speeches when the sea is rising around us all the time.”
The video went viral soon after because it started with just a close-up of the minister while he was delivering the speech and everything looked normal until the camera slowly panned out to reveal his location. The minister, with the lectern,the backdrop and flags were all partially submerged in ocean water.From when the Environment became Rotary’s seventh area of focus in 1 July 2021 to 9 March, The Rotary Foundation has since approved 11 Environment global grants amounting toUSD830,000. Even before it became a separate and distinct area of focus, USD18.4 Million in Foundation global grant funding had been allocated to environment-related causes in the past five years through our support of community and economic development and water, sanitation, and hygiene projects.
It is hard to make the call to respond to the environmental crisis when there are many urgent appeals needing our support and attention. This is possibly why many governments have dragged their feet in addressing this concern. It is not imminent and long-standing enough.Nature, however, has been persistent in its call for help. These disasters are becoming more frequent and severe. We seem to be addressing just the symptoms but barely getting down to the root of the problem.Do you have projects planned toward this area of focus? If so, please share this with us as we are eager to provide you any support we can extend.
Best Regards,
Grace
Grace Ramirez
Manager, International Office and Financial Service