In a saner world, late September would still be the time when the nations of the world gather to sort out our collective problems. And despite all the trash-talking of the United Nations and its annual General Assembly, some world leaders are still trying to make it so.

Very notably, António Guterres, the outgoing secretary-general of the UN who has been a lucid voice for the victims of climate impacts and a forceful proponent of climate action. 

Throughout his two terms, Guterres has refused to bend to the winds of climate hushing and has been one of the rare leaders willing to name fossil fuels as the root cause of climate breakdown.

Opening the UN General Assembly for the final time this week, Guterres called on the world’s nations to tackle the moral and physical crime of climate change, which he described as “the most profound intergenerational power imbalance of all.” 

And Guterres did not shy from calling out the fossil fuel industry by name, saying that “Big Oil has treated the atmosphere as an open sewer and cashed in on the consequences.”

Decidedly undiplomatic language from the world’s top diplomat. Jarring, even, to North American ears. Our public conversation is so stultified that it is deemed naive to raise the question of pollution and politically toxic to dwell on plain truths, like the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is deadly to great swaths of humanity and the natural world.

Climate change, Guterres said, has led to “one group profiting, while those least responsible suffer first and worst.” He highlighted the devastating floods in Nepal as an example of the brutal injustice of fossil-fuelled heating. The UN........

© National Observer