Three dozen climate negotiators and scientists were at Lincoln Center the other day, in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, to see a performance of "Kyoto," about the landmark 1997 treaty on greenhouse-gas emissions. It was a bittersweet reunion for "Team Climate U.S.A.," as Sue Biniaz, a State Department lawyer for more than thirty years, put it, while addressing the group in the lobby after the show.
We can't remain silent while our islands are sinking. We can't remain silent while our people are suffering, Talia said. Tuvalu is a nation of atolls and reef islands in the south Pacific and is considered acutely vulnerable to sea level rise and fiercer storms caused by the climate crisis. The US has withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement, and I think that's a shameful thing to do, he said.