On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.
Interpretation
Climate change is often underestimated and seen as a future issue rather than an immediate threat.
Kofi Annan's quote highlights the tendency of people to view climate change as a distant concern rather than recognizing it as a current crisis that requires immediate action. He implies that this lack of urgency can lead to disastrous consequences if we fail to acknowledge the urgency of addressing climate change now.
In practice
In a speech about climate initiatives, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for immediate action.
If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.
Let us remember the large numbers of citizens who, day in and day out, through acts of volunteerism large and small, bring hope to so many of the world's disadvantaged. Let us ensure that this wonderful resource, available in abundance to every nation, is recognized and supported as it works towards a more prosperous and peaceful world.
We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.
The global HIV/AIDS epidemic is an unprecedented crisis that requires an unprecedented response. In particular it requires solidarity - between the healthy and the sick, between rich and poor, and above all, between richer and poorer nations. We have 30 million orphans already. How many more do we have to get, to wake up?
People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what β and who β we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.
Democracy is, in essence, a form of non-violent conflict management. If war is the worst enemy of development, healthy and balanced development is the best form of conflict prevention.
I'm not sure I'm trying to communicate a message. I'm just trying to be part of the movement away from the unacceptable present.
If we're going to fight a disease, let's fight one of the most terrible diseases of all, indifference.
I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns out today is.
And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.
A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.
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