US President Barack Obama has painted a bleak picture of the Earth and enumerated what sounded like post-apocalyptic scenes to illustrate what will happen if world leaders will not act against climate change.
"Climate change is no longer some far-off problem. It is happening here. It is happening now," Obama warned representatives of more than 20 countries who attended last week's Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience (GLACIER) in Alaska, one of the US states most affected by effects of climate change.
The American leader used these harrowing images to drive home his point about global climate change action: "Submerged countries. Abandoned cities. Fields no longer growing. Indigenous peoples who can't carry out traditions that stretch back millennia."
"Entire industries of people who can't practice their livelihoods. Desperate refugees seeking the sanctuary of nations not their own. Political disruptions that could trigger multiple conflicts around the globe," he added.
Obama further said that future generations will inherit a world "beyond repair" if climate change action is not taken now.
"If we were to abandon our course of action, if we stop trying to build a clean-energy economy and reduce carbon pollution, if we do nothing to keep the glaciers from melting faster, and oceans from rising faster, and forests from burning faster, and storms from growing stronger, we will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair," he said.
The US President, who recently launched a plan to cut the US' greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 percent over the next decade, said the effects of climate change is already being felt now.
"Climate change is already disrupting our agriculture and ecosystems, our water and food supplies, our energy, our infrastructure, human health, human safety—now. Today," he said.
Obama further said that climate change is affecting various sectors of society, from agriculture to security.
"Climate change is a trend that affects all trends. Economic trends, security trends, Everything will be impacted and becomes more dramatic with each passing year," he said.
He further criticised world leaders who refuse to act to address climate change.
"Any so-called leader who doesn't take this issue seriously or treats it like a joke is not fit to lead. On this issue, of all issues, there is such a thing as being too late, and that moment is almost upon us," Obama said.
