Photo of Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni by UN/Cia Pak. Retreived from rnz.co.nz

Excerpt from rnz.co.nz

Opinion – “If we took the planet’s temperature, it will tell us that the Earth has a fever. And it is sick.”

I remember reading this statement from His Holiness, Pope Francis, back in September when my government had just hosted Pacific Leaders, donor partners and officials in Nukualofa for the 53rd Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting where they reaffirmed once more that the climate change crisis is an existential threat to our people, our homes and our livelihoods.

The United Nations (UN) Secretary General, António Guterres, was present, and said: “This is a crazy situation. Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making, a crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety. But if we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves.”