Tony debrum biography
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Our countries are forever condemned.’”
This message resonated with Brazil especially at the Paris Climate Conference. He fought for our independence, he fought against the tyranny of nuclear weapons and for nuclear justice for our people, and he led the international fight against climate change. Our message was ‘If we don’t do this now, you won’t be seeing this kind of people anymore.
Tony remained consistently and deeply committed to the cause of nuclear justice and global disarmament, and in 2012 was awarded the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Distinguished Peace Leader Award. In countries like Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam, millions of people will be forced to relocate, signifying the first major wave of climate refugees.
To stay on this path and curb the worst effects of climate change before it’s too late, there are a few factors of significant importance.
Image Credit: Flickr/UNclimatechange
The first is that closer coordination will be required between activists. While our nation may have lost two of our finest men, and the Earth two of its fiercest champions, the best thing we can all do to honor their legacies is to keep up the battle for our future — to which they dedicated their lives.
For this work, de Brum was honoured with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 2012 Distinguished Peace Leader Award, and he was recognised with the “Nuclear Free Future Award” in October 2015.
HILDA HEINE
President
It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart that I announce that the Marshall Islands lost a national hero Tuesday with the passing of our Climate Ambassador and former Minister Tony deBrum.
Tony passed away peacefully in Majuro, surrounded by his proud father, as well as his wife and partner in life, Rosalie, and their three children, ten grandchildren and five great grandchildren — including newly born Cei’Ena.
He was a giant of history, a legend in every meaning of the word, and a custodian of our shared future.
Born on February 26, 1945 in Tuvalu, Tony grew up in the Marshall Islands during the twelve-year period of US nuclear testing and, as a young boy out fishing with his grandfather, witnessed the horrors of the Bravo Shot, the largest US nuclear test — more than 1,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima.
The effects of this experiment, which was estimated to be 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, would prove disastrous for the people of the Marshall Islands.
DeBrum’s childhood coincided with the Cold War, during which the United States was testing its nuclear capabilities in the Pacific. Undeterred, de Brum wanted to appeal the judgment to the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
He was steadfast in pursuing this legal struggle to its conclusion, convinced that it was an important step forward in realising the Marshall Islanders’ desire for all people around the world to live free of the nuclear weapons threat hanging over humanity.
In 2016 he was voted the Arms Control Person of the Year and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tony found himself fighting for our country once again in the global battle against climate change.
After the Paris Climate Accord last year where a significant international agreement was made, deBrum sees a hopeful path for the future in spreading awareness of climate change. To scientists, this is beginning to look more and more unavoidable.
“Sitting six feet above the water and looking where my mother's garden used to be,” deBrum sighs.
In 2015 the Right Livelihood Foundation awarded him the Nuclear-Free Future Award and the ‘Alternative Nobel’. These atolls are small, usually only stretching a mile wide and sitting just six feet above the Ocean’s surface. The author is greatly appreciative of Ms. Greenstone Alefaio for passing along questions to Mr. DeBrum, and to Mr.
DeBrum himself for taking the time to answer them so thoughtfully.
Dec 3, 2017
Ethics
environment,activists, heroes, martyrs
AP Images/Frank Franklin II
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Tony de Brum served as Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands three times, including during the international climate negotiations that culminated in COP21 in 2015.
Determined to secure a safe climate future for his beloved islands, and for the world, Minister de Brum began informally convening ministerial colleagues who shared his commitment to an ambitious Paris outcome in the months leading up to the conference.
Tony DeBrum and his grandfather looked on in awe, fishing nets in hand, at the American nuclear test. “It’s now landfill because if it was not landfill it would be underwater. Instead, the relief requested is for the Court to hold the nuclear power states in breach of their obligations related to nuclear disarmament, and to order them to, within a year of the judgment, take all steps necessary to comply with those obligations, including the pursuit of negotiations aimed to conclude a convention on nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control.
In addition to these cases, de Brum also filed a separate lawsuit against the United States in the US District Court of California seeking to compel the US to negotiate in good faith towards nuclear disarmament.
The very existence of the Paris Agreement owes a lot to Tony deBrum. My thoughts and prayers, as well as those of the Government and the people of the Marshall Islands, are with them.
Tony’s legacy goes beyond our islands, and will go beyond those of us that call the Marshall Islands home.