Language Shouldn't Be a Barrier to Climate Action | Sophia Kianni | TED Countdown

At just 12 years old,

I witnessed the devastating impact pollution was having on Iran,

my parents' home country.

On one of my summer visits,

I witnessed smog so heavy it completely blanketed the air,

obscuring the stars I wanted to trace out of the night sky.

I decided to read more about climate change in Iran,

and I became increasingly alarmed,

particularly when I learned the fact that temperatures in the Middle East

were rising more than twice the global average.

Armed with this knowledge, I decided to confront my relatives.

But I was shocked when they informed me

that they knew almost nothing about climate change.

So I began to dig into the lack of climate education in Iran,

and I found a study that read

only five percent of Iranian students

could properly explain the greenhouse gas effect.

As I continued to scour the internet for more information,

I began to connect the dots.

From what I could see,

there was a severe lack of climate resources

available in Farsi, Iran's native language.

Now, I was still determined to educate my relatives,

so I decided to work with my mom to translate climate resources into Farsi

so I could teach my aunts and uncles

about how climate-change-induced disasters were impacting millions of Iranians.

As I watched my relatives read my translations,

I had never been happier to see fear plastered all over their faces --

(Laughter)

because reading my translations had succeeded in convincing them

that climate change was a real and pressing threat.

Now, my story is anecdotal.

But the fact that the vast majority of scientific research

is only available in English

is a big problem when it comes to climate change ...

(Applause)

because most people in the world don't speak English.

In fact, 75 percent of them do not speak English at all.

Yet, according to a 2012 study on Scopus,

the world's largest database for peer-reviewed journals,

80 percent of articles are written entirely in English.

Even the United Nations' IPCC report,

widely regarded as one of the most renowned pieces of climate literature

in the world,

is only officially available in the six UN languages:

Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

But these are languages that account for less than half

of the world's speaking population.

Meaning, the majority of people on our planet

are unable to understand the documents and agreements

being issued by the world's highest international political body.

This lack of easily accessible documents and resources

leads to misinformation and low public interest

around tackling issues such as climate change.

In fact, just six years ago,

40 percent of adults in the world had never heard of climate change.

Let me repeat that.

Two out of five adults had never heard of climate change.

When looking at specific regions where this problem lies,

we can see that multiple studies have found, in Africa,

there was a severe lack of climate education and curriculum

available in Africa’s Indigenous and local languages.

This lack of information only hurts those who need access to it the most.

In countries such as Japan and the Philippines,

climate change has worsened typhoons and disrupted agricultural industries.

In these and the other 10 countries worst impacted by climate change,

only one, Canada, is a majority English-speaking.

Languages remain a significant barrier

to the global transfer of scientific knowledge --

be it through the press, through schools

or through political processes.

In an effort to close the climate translation gap,

I decided to start Climate Cardinals,

and international youth-led nonprofit

working to make climate education more accessible

to those who don't speak English.

We work with over 8,000 bilingual student volunteers

who translate climate information in exchange for community service hours.

In just over a year,

we've translated hundreds of thousands of words of climate information

into over 100 languages,

including Yoruba, Somali, Swahili and Gujarati.

If a ragtag group of teenagers that congregate through social media

can do this work,

imagine the impact that a concentrated effort

by governments, scientists and policymakers would have.

Groups of people

that are being disproportionately affected by climate change

deserve to have access to the resources they need

to make sense of these disasters that are destroying their communities.

(Cheers and applause)

The more people are informed about the climate crisis,

the greater chance we have to coordinate

collective efforts in protection of the future of our planet.

Because every single person in the world,

every single person in this room,

has the power to further climate action.

So we must engage people from every country,

young and old,

to join the fight for climate justice.

English cannot be the barrier to entry.

Thank you.

(Cheers and applause)