Monday, January 9, 2012

Video: Anjali Appadurai ~ Student from B.C. in climate change spotlight after passionate speech

A young scholar from B.C. has found herself in the centre of the international climate change spotlight after a video of her rousing speech at the Durban climate talks in South Africa last recently went viral.
Anjali Appadurai, a former student of Gleneagle Secondary in Coquitlam, who is now a third-year student at College of the Atlantic (COA) in Maine, stepped up to the microphone and challenged the delegates to put aside what she called short-sighted ambitions in order to set long-term goals to fight climate change.

“You’ve been negotiating all my life,” said a clear and confident Appadurai in her speech, which is garnering tens of thousands of views on YouTube and is winning praise from the likes of Naomi Klein, The New York Times and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, which aired the speech.
“In that time, you’ve failed to meet pledges, you’ve missed targets and you’ve broken promises,” Appadurai continued. “I speak for more than half the world’s population,” she said, referring to the youth of the world. “What does it take to get a stake in this game? Lobbyists? Corporate influence? Money?”
The student of development economics and global politics asked the international dignitaries why they’ve failed to set hard targets to combat climate change. “Where is the courage in this room?” she asked. “These will be seen as the defining moments of an era in which narrow self-interest prevailed over science, reason, and common compassion.”
As she finished her speech, Appadurai stepped to the side of the stage and looked across the room to her fellow student delegates. “Get it done,” she called to the audience, in a fashion similar to that of the global Occupy movement.
“Get it done,” the youths called back, several times.
Andrew Revkin of the New York Times called the speech “remarkable,” while author Naomi Klein called Appadurai “a hero” on Twitter.
Appadurai is one of nine delegates from COA who attended the meetings in Durban, South Africa. The young scholars took part in a tutorial on climate change politics and policy with Doreen Stabinsky, a faculty member at COA in international relations, who also attended the meetings.
The students studied the science, politics, and treaties surrounding climate change, which enabled the youths to attended the meetings known as Conferences of Parties. courtesy Vancouver Sun