The global boil

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that “the age of global warming has ended, and the era of global boiling has arrived.” This does not seem like an exaggeration. Scientists warned that July was the hottest month ever recorded and only two weeks back the temperatures of the world’s oceans rose to 20.96 degrees C – the highest ever recorded. Global average temperatures have been on the rise for several months now. In July, the US and China reported several heat deaths (the exact figures are not available). In Mexico alone, at least 200 people died of the heat. In Greece, tourists had to evacuate Rhodes as the area witnessed the worst wildfires. The signs are clear, and scientists continue to raise alarm bells. But it is rather tragic that governments hardly pay attention to the impacts of climate change caused by human-made activities. The reliance on fossil fuel and companies’ near refusal to adopt alternatives indicate that this global problem is not going away soon.

But as the earth sizzles, the underprivileged remain first in line to bear the disastrous effects of climate-induced disasters. There has to be a joint global effort to cope with climate change, and developed nations must own their actions. In a world where politicians from the world’s most powerful nation the US call climate change a ‘hoax’, adopting a plan for the climate becomes difficult. These nations have to alter policies on a massive scale and move towards more sustainable development and production. Deforestation in Brazil – the threat to the Amazon rainforest – is just one example of how countries are intentionally destroying the earth’s natural methods of coping with climate change.

We can no longer ignore the unchecked activities that are harming the planet. The UN and the EU have sent out clear warnings. We can only hope that world leaders will hear them and make moves to bring down the manner in which production is carried out so that the future of the earth and all the people who live on it, or will live on it in the future, can be secured. We have to build a world that does not have to constantly worry about fires, glacial melts, avalanches, floods and other hazards. As we watch in horror at what climate change is unleashing on us and our future generations, it is a belated realization that the world’s governments have been too late at taking notice.