New Delhi, June 13 -- The morning light shimmered on the waters of the French Riviera, where the harbour at Port Lympia in Nice mirrored the fragile state of the oceans it welcomed. Aboard a moored vessel bearing the World Wildlife Fund's panda emblem, a small gathering of journalists and conservationists sat hushed as Frankie Orona spoke into the salt-heavy air.

"Imagine a baby in the womb," he said, "already exposed to plastic chemicals - pollutants we unleashed long before that child ever drew breath."

Orona, a descendent of the Tonkawa and Apache tribes and director of the Society of Native Nations in Texas, United States, was not just delivering a speech. He was offering a reckoning - an ancestral warning echoing through the sacre...