{"id":258770,"date":"2017-08-24T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T20:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=258770"},"modified":"2017-08-24T06:00:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T20:00:40","slug":"tony-de-brum-pacific-voice-climate-change-dies-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/tony-de-brum-pacific-voice-climate-change-dies-72\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony de Brum, Pacific voice on climate change, dies, 72"},"content":{"rendered":"
In this Nov. 2015 photo, Tony de Brum, Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands, receives, on behalf of the people of the Marshall Islands an honorary award for their struggle against all nine nuclear weapons states for their failure to abide by the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty from Jakob von Uexkull, the founder of the award.\u00a0(AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WELLINGTON, New Zealand<\/strong> (AP)\u2014Tony de Brum saw the effects of rising seas from his home in the Marshall Islands and became a leading advocate for the landmark Paris Agreement and an internationally recognized voice in the fight against climate change.<\/p>\n

De Brum, who was the Pacific nation\u2019s climate ambassador and former foreign minister, died Tuesday in the capital Majuro surrounded by his family, according to Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine. He was 72.<\/p>\n

After witnessing nuclear testing in the islands while growing up, de Brum also fought against nuclear weapons and for his nation\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

Heine described him as a national hero.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very existence of the Paris Agreement owes a lot to Tony de Brum,\u201d Heine said in a statement. \u201cHe was a giant of history, a legend in every meaning of the word, and a custodian of our shared future.\u201d<\/p>\n

When The Associated Press visited de Brum at his Majuro home in 2015, he described how he\u2019d grown up catching rabbitfish off Enebok Island, which was lush with coconut and breadfruit trees at the time.<\/p>\n

But in recent years, the island has slipped beneath the water. When the AP visited the island with de Brum, all that remained at low tide was a pile of rocks that snagged flotsam including a sandal, some frayed rope and a sprouting coconut.<\/p>\n

Although the Marshall Islands, population 70,000, remains one of the places most vulnerable to climate change because it protrudes just 2 meters (6 feet) above sea level, de Brum said at the time that he was determined to stay and fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of evacuation is repulsive to us,\u201d he told the AP. \u201cWe think that the more reasonable thing to do is to seek to end this madness, this climate madness, where people think that smaller, vulnerable countries are expendable and therefore they can continue to do business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heine said de Brum was out fishing with his grandfather at age 9 when he witnessed the horrors of \u201cBravo shot,\u201d a U.S. thermonuclear test at Bikini Atoll.<\/p>\n

Born in Tuvalu, de Brum became one of the first Marshallese to attend university and returned home to become a leading participant in negotiations that secured the nation\u2019s compact of free association with the U.S. and membership to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Heine said de Brum remained committed to the cause of nuclear justice and global disarmament, as well as climate change.<\/p>\n

During the negotiations for the Paris accord, de Brum helped form the \u201cHigh Ambition Coalition\u201d of 100 rich and poor nations and helped secure a global commitment to try to limit Earth\u2019s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-Industrial times.<\/p>\n

The U.S. signed up for the accord under President Barack Obama but President Donald Trump announced in June that the nation would withdraw.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was incredibly important to all of us,\u201d said Marshall Islands poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, who is related to de Brum. \u201cHe is viewed for his work globally, but he was also a grandfather, an uncle, and a father, and was much more than his accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jetnil-Kijiner wrote a poem dedicated to de Brum and Mattlan Zackhras, a government minister who died earlier this month and who was also dedicated to fighting climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say there are no mountains, in the Marshalls, the land that is close, to an expiration date,\u201d Jetnil-Kijiner wrote. \u201cBut I will tell you the mountains, were men, giants who walked across the sea, sounding the call for the world, to hear our story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heine said de Brum is survived by his father, his wife Rosalie, three children, 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)\u2014Tony de Brum saw the effects of rising seas from his home…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":258771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5233,165,12971,67],"class_list":["post-258770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ap","tag-new-zealand","tag-paris-agreement","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}