There is never a humanitarian solution for a humanitarian crisis. The solutions for the humanitarian crisis are always political ones.
Antonio GuterresRead
As populations continue to increase, and the climate continues to deteriorate, and as people flock in ever increasing numbers to large, underdeveloped cities, the threat of multiple protracted mega-emergencies has become reality.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the challenges posed by population growth and climate change in urban areas.
Antonio Guterres warns about the escalating crises resulting from rapid urbanization, population increase, and climate deterioration. He emphasizes that these factors contribute to the emergence of mega-emergencies that could overwhelm societies and demands urgent attention and action to address these pressing issues.
In practice
In a conference on climate change, one could use this quote to stress the urgency of addressing urban environmental issues.
There is never a humanitarian solution for a humanitarian crisis. The solutions for the humanitarian crisis are always political ones.
As a global society, we have the technology, resources and the know-how to make a massive difference to living standards everywhere, including for refugees.
The world's problems transcend borders.
Humanitarian response, sustainable development, and sustaining peace are three sides of the same triangle.
The fact that societies are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-religious is good. Diversity is a strength, not a weakness.
Syria has become the great tragedy of this century - a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.
I do genuinely believe that the political system is not linear. When it reaches a tipping point fashioned by a critical mass of opinion, the slow pace of change we're used to will no longer be the norm. I see a lot of signs every day that we're moving closer and closer to that tipping point.
The goal in the end is not to win elections. The goal is to change society.
The only way really to influence countries, in terms of poverty, is to get them to change their policies and get them to understand what the issues are.
The insistence on complete certainty about the full details of global warming-the most serious threat we have ever faced-is actually an effort to avoid facing the awful, uncomfortable truth: that we must act boldly, decisively, comprehensively, and quickly, even before we know every last detail about the crisis. Those who continue to argue that the appropriate response is merely additional research are simply seeking to camouflage timidity or protect their vested interest in the status quo.
A careless way of sauntering across the earth and breaking open its treasures, a terrible dependency on sucking out the world's best juices for ourselves-these may also be our enemies. The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.
She was so busy forgetting, she couldn't take a single step into the future.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.