Hi, it's Pierce Brosnan here. Gift hosting today. If you want to learn how to take real

lasting climate action, like I do, I want to invite you to join Countdown, Ted's new global

initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis.

Here's a talk from the Countdown Global Launch event given by Secretary General of the United Nations,

Antonio Gutierrez.

To hear more of these ideas and get involved, check out countdown. ted.com and subscribe to the countdown podcast

wherever you're listening to this. We are all here today because the climate countdown has

begun and we are nowhere near where we need to be.

Science tells us we must limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

We are on track for three degrees at least.

Billions of people around the world are already suffering from our failure to act.

Climate disruption, due to our outdated addiction to fossil fuels,

is causing unprecedented wildfires, more intense and frequent cyclones,

floods, droughts and other weather extremes.

Toxic air pollution is choking our major cities and harming our health and biodiversity on land

and seas under growing pressure. No country is immune from the climate crisis. But in every

country it is the poorest and most vulnerable who are hardest hit despite having done least to cause

the problem. Over the past 25 years, the richest 10% of the global population

has been responsible for more than half of our carbon emissions,

and the poorest 50% were responsible for just 7% of emissions.

Ranking justice and inequality of this scale is a cancer. If we don't act now,

this entry may be one of humanity's lust. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fundamental

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