The writer is a former UN secretary-general
Heading the UN gave me a new perspective on the world. In a short time, I saw glaciers melting in Antarctica, devastating floods in Thailand and Pakistan, the 2011 tsunami in Japan and Hurricane Sandy in America. In September 2011, I met a young boy in the South Pacific island of Kiribati who could not sleep because he was worried that the rising sea would destroy his home.
I learnt that the biggest challenges humanity faces are interlinked. I saw that surviving and emerging from a crisis depends upon our ability to work together, beyond borders and national interests. And I understood that our relationship with nature will ultimately decide our fate. If we fail to keep the equilibrium, the most vulnerable will suffer first and most.