Reality or Myth? – Dugongs or Mermaids? – Fossil Free Zones or Net-Zero targets?

SPECIAL ENVOY: 

“Good day, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

“I can vouch for the fact that Dugongs are REAL. We still exist and we live along coastal waters worldwide. Our second largest group lives in the Arabian Gulf, with the Marawah reserve having the highest density of Dugongs anywhere in the world. 

“And the threats to our future are real too, sadly. 

“What is a MYTH is dugongs being Mermaids – this must have come from slightly tipsy mariners and their wishful thinking. So this is NOT a reality. 

“It is important to differentiate between reality and mythical stories, especially here at the COP. We have heard a number of mythical stories such as NET-ZERO – this implies that someone can continue to emit CO2 or its equivalent as long as someone else, somewhere else, reduces their – other – emissions. 

“This is fake news of the worst sort. It defies reality – we have to stop burning fossil fuels everywhere as quickly as possible, with the richest countries with the highest emissions having to move first. The more fossil fuels your country or community burn today, the more quickly you and they need to scale down your emissions. 

“Rather than playing with emission numbers, let us look at REAL ZERO, not NET ZERO. Real zero is actually much easier to understand. For real zero, you just gotta stop burning fossil fuels! Duh!

“Worldwide, FOSSIL FREE places are appearing, sometimes by private initiative, and sometimes supported by governments. Here in the MENA region, my friends from LINGO collected information about fossil free schools, fossil free mosques and churches.

You can find all of them on the Fossil Free Zones website! There are hundreds of them around the world.

“This is where we should be heading: real zero emissions to make the entire planet fossil free! This is how phasing out fossil fuels happens, even against the stubborn resistance of the oil and gas industry. This is REAL Zero, not mythical number juggling. 

“Thank you!”

SPEAKER : The Dugong delivers daily commentary on the situation of the Dugongs, their struggle to keep their habitats intact, and also on the progress of the negotiations. Always at 1 PM in the B1 building. 

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