Kenyan activist's plea to world leaders at COP26

"Please, open your hearts."  Kenyan activist Elizabeth Wathuti had a plea for world leaders at the COP26 World Summit...

Transcript

00:00I need to tell you what is happening in my home country.

00:05Right now, as we sit comfortably here in this conference center in Glasgow, over two million

00:14of my fellow Kenyans are facing climate-related starvation.

00:19In this past year, both of our rainy seasons have failed, and scientists say that it may

00:26be another 12 months before the waters return again.

00:32Meanwhile, our rivers are running dry, our harvests are failing, our storehouses stand

00:41empty, our animals and people are dying.

00:47I have seen with my own eyes three young children crying at the side of a dried-up river after

00:58walking 12 miles with their mother to find water.

01:02Please open your hearts.

01:06This is not only happening in Kenya.

01:11Over the past few months, there have been deadly heat waves and wildfires in Algeria

01:18and devastating floods in Uganda and Nigeria, and there is more still to come.

01:27By 2025, in just four years' time, half of the world's population will be facing water

01:36scarcity.

01:38And by the time I'm 50, the climate crisis will have displaced 86 million people in sub-Saharan

01:47Africa alone.

01:50I would like you to join me in holding a moment of compassionate silence for the billions

01:57of people who are not here with us today, whose stories are not being heard, and whose

02:03suffering is not being felt.

02:14Please open your hearts.

02:17If you allow yourself to feel it, the heartbreak and the injustice is hard to bear.

02:28Sub-Saharan Africans are responsible for just half a percent of historical emissions.

02:35The children are responsible for none, but they are bearing the brunt.

02:42The decisions you make here will help determine whether the rains will return to our land.

02:49The decisions you make here will help determine whether the fruit trees we plant will live

02:55or perish.

02:56The decisions you make here will help determine whether children will have food and water.

03:03Please open your hearts, and then act.