McGuinness: Tsunami should spark new eco-approach
International governments must adopt a sensible approach to climate change following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness claimed today.
Mr McGuinness was commenting after he met the family of missing Co Tyrone man Conor Keightley.
Mr Keightley, aged 31, from Cookstown, has been missing since the St Stephen's Day disaster. He had been on holiday in Thailand.
His sisters Darina Duffin and Michelle McCaughey are expected to arrive in Phuket tomorrow to begin their search for him in the hope that he is still alive.
After visiting the Keightley family in Cookstown, Mr McGuinness said his prayers and best wishes were with them during what was a tramuatic time.
And while the former Stormont Education Minister welcomed the generous response of people to the disaster, he insisted governments needed to cancel debts in the affected countries and tackle climate change.
“The majority of people in the countries hardest hit – Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia – live in dire poverty. An area where millions die each year from preventable causes such as measles and malnutrition demands urgent action on debt cancellation,” he said.
“Whatever the reason, this catastrophe has focused our attention on our increasingly unpredictable climate. There is mounting evidence of the need to make the switch from the use of fossil fuels to renewable energy.
“Ecologists have been telling world leaders for years that climate change associated with global warming is a disaster waiting to happen. Few governments were listening.
“We don’t have to be scientists to know that the destruction of the tropical rain forests, which have survived millions of years, will seriously impact on the delicate eco-balance.”
It is estimated that some 150,000 people were killed by the freak waves caused by earthquakes which devastated parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
Millions of euro has been raised around the world to help communities recover from the disaster.
However, Mr McGuinness said that, generous as people were, donating money was not enough.
“Global catastrophes are now almost a monthly occurrence,” the Sinn Fein MP said. “Real and profound change is needed in the political and economic systems that influence governments."
