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Transcript (20 Languages)

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brasileiroPortuguês de PortugalTiếng ViệtTürkçeČeštinaСрпски, Srpski‫العربيةفارسىکوردی‬
‫سۆرانی‬हिन्दीမြန်ြာဘာသာ 中文 (简体)中文 (繁體)

00:01
At just 12 years old, I witnessed the devastating impact pollution was having on Iran, my parents' home
country. On one of my summer visits, I witnessed smog so heavy it completely blanketed the
air, obscuring the stars I wanted to trace out of the night sky. I decided to read more about climate change
in Iran, and I became increasingly alarmed, particularly when I learned the fact that temperatures in the
Middle East were rising more than twice the global average. Armed with this knowledge, I decided to
confront my relatives. But I was shocked when they informed me that they knew almost nothing about
climate change.
00:49
So I began to dig into the lack of climate education in Iran, and I found a study that read only five percent
of Iranian students could properly explain the greenhouse gas effect. As I continued to scour the internet
for more information, I began to connect the dots. From what I could see, there was a severe lack of
climate resources available in Farsi, Iran's native language.
01:20
Now, I was still determined to educate my relatives, so I decided to work with my mom to translate climate
resources into Farsi so I could teach my aunts and uncles about how climate-change-induced disasters
were impacting millions of Iranians. As I watched my relatives read my translations, I had never been
happier to see fear plastered all over their faces --
01:48
(Laughter)
01:50
because reading my translations had succeeded in convincing them that climate change was a real and
pressing threat.
01:59
Now, my story is anecdotal. But the fact that the vast majority of scientific research is only available in
English is a big problem when it comes to climate change ...
02:13
(Applause)
02:18
because most people in the world don't speak English. In fact, 75 percent of them do not speak English at
all. Yet, according to a 2012 study on Scopus, the world's largest database for peer-reviewed journals, 80
percent of articles are written entirely in English. Even the United Nations' IPCC report, widely regarded as
one of the most renowned pieces of climate literature in the world, is only officially available in the six UN
languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. But these are languages that
account for less than half of the world's speaking population. Meaning, the majority of people on our
planet are unable to understand the documents and agreements being issued by the world's highest
international political body. This lack of easily accessible documents and resources leads to
misinformation and low public interest around tackling issues such as climate change.
03:31
In fact, just six years ago, 40 percent of adults in the world had never heard of climate change. Let me
repeat that. Two out of five adults had never heard of climate change. When looking at specific regions
where this problem lies, we can see that multiple studies have found, in Africa, there was a severe lack of
climate education and curriculum available in Africa’s Indigenous and local languages. This lack of
information only hurts those who need access to it the most. In countries such as Japan and the
Philippines, climate change has worsened typhoons and disrupted agricultural industries. In these and the
other 10 countries worst impacted by climate change, only one, Canada, is a majority English-speaking.
04:33
Languages remain a significant barrier to the global transfer of scientific knowledge -- be it through the
press, through schools or through political processes. In an effort to close the climate translation gap, I
decided to start Climate Cardinals, and international youth-led nonprofit working to make climate
education more accessible to those who don't speak English. We work with over 8,000 bilingual student
volunteers who translate climate information in exchange for community service hours. In just over a
year, we've translated hundreds of thousands of words of climate information into over 100
languages, including Yoruba, Somali, Swahili and Gujarati. If a ragtag group of teenagers that congregate
through social media can do this work, imagine the impact that a concentrated effort by governments,
scientists and policymakers would have. Groups of people that are being disproportionately affected by
climate change deserve to have access to the resources they need to make sense of these disasters that
are destroying their communities.
05:51
(Cheers and applause)
05:59
The more people are informed about the climate crisis, the greater chance we have to
coordinate collective efforts in protection of the future of our planet. Because every single person in the
world, every single person in this room, has the power to further climate action.
06:20
So we must engage people from every country, young and old, to join the fight for climate justice.
06:32
English cannot be the barrier to entry.
06:37
Thank you.
06:38
(Cheers and applause)

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