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On the 17th of October, 2009,
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President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives
did something unusual.
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He held his cabinet meeting underwater.
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He literally took his ministers
scuba diving, as it were,
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to warn the world
that his country could drown
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unless we control global warming.
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Now I don't know whether he got
his message across to the world or not,
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but he certainly caught mine.
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I saw a political stunt.
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You see, I'm a politician,
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and I notice these things.
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And let's be honest,
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the Maldives are distant
from where I come from --
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my country is Bhutan --
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so I didn't lose any sleep
over their impending fate.
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Barely two months later,
I saw another political stunt.
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This time, the prime minister of Nepal,
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he held his cabinet meeting
on Mt. Everest.
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He took all his ministers all the way up
to the base camp of Everest
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to warn the world
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that the Himalayan glaciers were melting.
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Now did that worry me?
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You bet it did.
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I live in the Himalayas.
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But did I lose any sleep over his message?
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No.
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I wasn't ready to let a political stunt
interfere with my beauty sleep.
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(Laughter)
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Now fast-forward 10 years.
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In February this year,
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I saw this report.
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This here report basically concludes
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that one third of the ice
on the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountains
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could melt by the end of the century.
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But that's only if,
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if we are able to contain global warming
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to 1.5 degrees centigrade
over preindustrial levels.
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Otherwise, if we can't,
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the glaciers would melt much faster.
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1.5 degrees Celsius. "No way," I thought.
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Even the Paris Agreement's
ambitious targets
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aimed to limit global warming
to two degrees centigrade.
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1.5 degrees centigrade is what they call
the best-case scenario.
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"Now this can't be true," I thought.
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The Hindu Kush Himalaya region
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is the world's third-largest
repository of ice
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after the North and South Poles.
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That's why we are also called
the Third Pole.
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There's a lot of ice in the region.
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And yes, the glaciers, they are melting.
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We know that.
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I have been to those in my country.
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I've seen them, and yes, they are melting.
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They are vulnerable.
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"But they can't be that vulnerable,"
I remember thinking.
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But what if they are?
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What if our glaciers melt
much more quickly than I anticipate?
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What if our glaciers are much more
vulnerable than previously thought?
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And what if, as a result,
the glacial lakes --
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now these are lakes
that form when glaciers melt --
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what if those lakes burst
under the weight of additional water?
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And what if those floods
cascade into other glacial lakes,
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creating even bigger outbursts?
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That would create unprecedented
flash floods in my country.
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That would wreck my country.
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That would wreak havoc in my country.
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That would have the potential
to literally destroy our land,
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our livelihood, our way of life.
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So that report caught my attention
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in ways that political stunts couldn't.
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It was put together
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by the International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development, or ICIMOD,
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which is based in Nepal.
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Scientists and experts have studied
our glaciers for decades,
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and their report kept me awake at night,
agonizing about the bad news
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and what it meant for my country
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and my people.
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So after several sleepless nights,
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I went to Nepal to visit ICIMOD.
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I found a team of highly competent
and dedicated scientists there,
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and here's what they told me.
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Number one:
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the Hindu Kush Himalaya glaciers
have been melting for some time now.
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Take that glacier, for instance.
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It's on Mt. Everest.
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As you can see, this once massive glacier
has already lost much of its ice.
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Number two:
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the glaciers are now melting
much more quickly --
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so quickly, in fact, that at just
1.5 degrees centigrade of global warming,
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one-third of the glaciers would melt.
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At two degrees centigrade
of global warming,
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half the glaciers would disappear.
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And if current trends were to continue,
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a full two-thirds
of our glaciers would vanish.
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Number three:
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global warming means that our mountains
receive more rain and less snow ...
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and, unlike snowfall, rain melts ice,
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which just hurts
the health of our glaciers.
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Number four:
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pollution in the region has increased
the amount of black carbon
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that's deposited on our glaciers.
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Black carbon is like soot.
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Black carbon absorbs heat
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and just accelerates
the melting of glaciers.
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To summarize,
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our glaciers are melting rapidly,
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and global warming is making them
melt much more quickly.
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But what does this mean?
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It means that the 240 million people
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who live in the Hindu Kush
Himalaya region --
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in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India,
China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar
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and my own beloved country Bhutan --
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these people will be directly affected.
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When glaciers melt,
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when there's more rain and less snow,
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there will be huge changes
in the way water behaves.
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There will be more extremes:
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more intense rain,
more flash floods, more landslides,
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more glacial lake outburst floods.
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All this will cause
unimaginable destruction
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in a region that already has
some of the poorest people on earth.
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But it's not just the people
in the immediate region
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who'll be affected.
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People living downstream
will also be hit hard.
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That's because 10 of their major rivers
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originate in the Hindu Kush
Himalaya mountains.
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These rivers provide
critical water for agriculture
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and drinking water
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to more than 1.6 billion people
living downstream.
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That's one in five humans.
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That's why the Hindu Kush
Himalaya mountains
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are also called the water towers of Asia.
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But when glaciers melt,
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when monsoons turn severe,
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those rivers will obviously flood,
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so there will be deluges
when water is not required
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and droughts will be very common,
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when water is desperately required.
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In short, Asia's water tower
will be broken,
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and that will be disastrous
for one-fifth of humanity.
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Should the rest of the world care?
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Should you, for instance, care?
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Remember, I didn't care
when I heard that the Maldives
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could disappear underwater.
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And that is the crux
of the problem, isn't it?
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We don't care.
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We don't care until
we are personally affected.
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I mean, we know.
We know climate change is real.
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We know that we face
drastic and dramatic change.
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We know that it is coming fast.
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Yet most of us
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act as if everything were normal.
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So we must care,
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all of us,
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and if you can't care for those who are
affected by the melting of glaciers,
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you should at least care for yourself.
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That's because the Hindu Kush
Himalaya mountains --
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the entire region
is like the pulse of the planet.
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If the region falls sick,
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the entire planet will eventually suffer,
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and right now,
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with our glaciers melting rapidly,
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the region is not just sick --
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it is crying out for help.
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And how will it affect
the rest of the world?
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One obvious scenario
is the potential destabilization
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caused by tens of millions
of climate refugees,
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who'll be forced to move
because they have no or little water,
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or because their livelihoods
have been destroyed
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by the melting of glaciers.
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Another scenario we can't take lightly
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is the potential of conflict over water,
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and the political destabilization
in a region that has three nuclear powers:
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China, India, Pakistan.
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I believe that the situation
in our region is grave enough
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to warrant the creation
of a new intergovernmental agency.
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So as a native
from that part of the world,
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I want to propose here, today,
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the establishment
of the Third Pole Council,
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a high-level,
intergovernmental organization
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tasked with the singular responsibility
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of protecting the world's
third-largest repository of ice.
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A Third Pole Council
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would consist of all eight countries
located in the region
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as member countries,
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as equal member countries,
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and could also include
representative organizations
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and other countries
who have vested interests in the region
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as non-voting members.
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But the big idea
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is to get all stakeholders together
to work together.
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To work together to monitor
the health of the glaciers;
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to work together to shape and implement
policies to protect our glaciers,
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and, by extension,
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to protect the billions of people
who depend on our glaciers.
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We have to work together,
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because thinking globally,
acting locally ...
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does not work.
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We've tried that in Bhutan.
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We've made immense sacrifices
to act locally ...
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and while individual localized efforts
will continue to be important,
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they cannot stand up
to the onslaught of climate change.
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To stand up to climate change,
we must work together.
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We must think globally and act regionally.
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Our entire region must come together,
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to work together,
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to fight climate change together,
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to make our voices heard together.
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And that includes India and China.
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They must step up their game.
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They must take the ownership
of the fight to protect our glaciers.
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And for that, these two countries,
these two powerful giants,
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must reduce their own greenhouse gases,
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control their pollution,
and lead the fight.
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Lead the global fight
against climate change.
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And all that with a renewed
sense of urgency.
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Only then -- and that, too, only maybe --
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will our region
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and other regions
that depend on our glaciers
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have any chance to avoid
major catastrophes.
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Time is running out.
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We must act together, now.
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Otherwise, the next time
Nepal's cabinet meets on Mt. Everest,
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that spectacular backdrop ...
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may look quite different.
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And if that happens,
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if our glaciers melt,
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rising sea levels
could well drown the Maldives,
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and while they can hold
their cabinet meetings underwater
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to send an SOS to the world,
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their country can keep existing
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only if their islands keep existing.
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The Maldives are still distant, away.
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Their islands are distant
from where I live.
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But now, I pay close attention
to what happens out there.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)