A Book, a warning, and the world’s unkept promises

Recently, while travelling abroad for a few days, I stepped into a bookshop and was immediately drawn to a particular book. I read a few pages, and before long I decided to buy it, as a gift for my granddaughter, who is now preparing for her G.C.E. Advanced Level examinations. To me, it is a book that offers society a clear vision: that only through collective action can we overcome the serious challenges facing humanity today. The book is “The Ministry for the Future”, written by Kim Stanley Robinson. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, the novel describes the devastation that climate change is bringing upon humankind. It argues, with plenty of evidence, that the world is heading toward a great tragedy, and it stresses that we must act together, and without delay, to reverse this course. The scale of the loss is staggering. In India alone, millions of lives have already been lost because of changing climate conditions. In fact, the number of people who have died as a result of climate change is greater than the number who died in the First World War. After a deadly heat wave, Chandra Mukherji, head of the Indian delegation to the Paris Climate Agreement, spoke plainly: “It is the Europeans, the Americans and the Chinese who are responsible for the heat wave, not us, the Indians. Yes, we have burned coal over the past few decades, but it is small compared with the West. We have now ratified the Paris agreement and done our part. Yet you are not doing what you agreed to. You are not paying the developing nations. We are facing this heat wave now, and next week we will be facing something else. Nothing has changed.”

The United Nations was created to keep world peace and protect smaller nations, acting on the will of the majority of the world’s people. Yet the veto power held by the superpowers is used to serve their own interests, leaving little hope for a world where justice is shared by all. The pattern is clear across many institutions. The International Court of Justice, the Human Rights Commission, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were all established to uphold global justice and fairness. Yet they have been weakened by the threats and conduct of the superpowers, who act against international laws and treaties

It is troubling that the world’s superpowers do little to carry out the steps agreed under the Paris Climate Convention, steps the United Nations helped to broker precisely to address these problems. After all, these same superpowers are the largest contributors to global pollution. If they offered honest support, many of the challenges facing humanity today could be solved with relative ease. Consider disarmament. If the United Nations’ efforts succeeded, wars around the world could be brought to a halt, sparing millions of lives. The vast sums now spent on destruction could instead fund projects to fight hunger, unemployment and other social problems worldwide. But this does not happen, because policymakers have bowed to the financial power of large weapons manufacturers. This brings to mind a line from Arundhati Roy: “Once weapons were manufactured to fight wars. Now wars are manufactured to sell weapons.” The United Nations was created to keep world peace and protect smaller nations, acting on the will of the majority of the world’s people. Yet the veto power held by the superpowers is used to serve their own interests, leaving little hope for a world where justice is shared by all. The pattern is clear across many institutions. The International Court of Justice, the Human Rights Commission, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were all established to uphold global justice and fairness. Yet they have been weakened by the threats and conduct of the superpowers, who act against international laws and treaties. I am also reminded of how the superpowers treated two distinguished Sri Lankans: Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala, a candidate for United Nations Secretary-General, and Judge Weeramantry of the International Court of Justice. Both were recognised around the world for their courage and impartiality in carrying out their duties, and both saw their fortunes shaped by these same powers. It is no secret, either, that the superpowers maintain an active, strategic effort to weaken the collective voice of developing nations, the Non-Aligned Movement. The reality is that international law seems to apply only to the smaller nations. The very same laws appear not to bind the superpowers at all. Here, I am reminded of a verse by the British poet Sir Daniel Isaac Gordon: “War, death and terror; The world is filled with hate; We’d better get things straightened out: Before it comes too late”.

A Book, a warning, and the world’s unkept promises | Daily FT