Will the world’s people destroy their only home?

OTTAWA—From Alaska's northernmost city of Barrow to the island of Rhodes in Greece, people have been coping with the impact of unprecedented heat this summer. On the Greek island, tourists and residents took action to try to put out fires at seaside resorts, and visitors later went on with their holidays at fire-scarred beaches. Tens of thousands of tourists had to be evacuated, along with residents, as a heat wave set off wildfires across the country. “Is the situation any better in other countries bordering the Mediterranean? It’s a fair question ... but the answer is no,” said Vassilis Kikilias, the Greek minister for climate change. “The climate crisis that brought us this unprecedented heat wave is here. It’s not a theory. It is our actual experience. This is not something that will just occur this year. It will last and we have to face the consequences of what that means.” June 2023 ranked as the Earth’s warmest June on record, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It also marked the 47th-consecutive June and the 532nd-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average, NOAA said. And July proved even hotter. Last weekend, some 175 million people in the United States were under excessive heat warnings and advisories as the midday heat index in many areas rose well above 38 C. Here, we are on track for a record fire season, with nearly 5,000 wildfires so far in 2023. More than 1,500 firefighters have arrived in Canada to help from all over the world, and the smoke from the fires has led to air quality warnings in much of Canada and the U.S. What is especially worrying about 2023 is that it does, in fact, seem a tipping point after which weather events are only going to get worse as climate change takes hold. “Short of a mini-Ice Age” in the coming days, July 2023 will likely “shatter records across the board,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week. “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” said the UN chief, warning that the consequences are as clear as they are tragic: “children swept away by monsoon rains, families running from the flames, and workers collapsing in scorching heat.” Scientists, of course, have been alerting the world for decades about the dangers from continued use of fossil fuels. And many world leaders finally joined forces in 2015 to establish a binding agreement to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. Now, with conditions worsening, the G20 summit in India next month is being viewed as a sort of last chance for the world’s largest economies—who produce 80 per cent of planet-warming gases—to commit to the accelerated, radical action needed to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. But the outlook is not propitious. At a meeting in India last week, in which G20 environment ministers were meant to set the stage for their national leaders on this issue, the outcome was notable for the lack of consensus in the face of global pleas for united action. A written statement published by the ministers after their gathering in Chennai, India, indicated countries did not agree on aiming to peak emissions by 2025, moving to clean energy and putting a tax on carbon as a way to reduce them. Countries talk about change, but leaders are reluctant to engage their citizens directly when it comes to accepting the inherent responsibility. Despite the fact that a carbon tax is widely recognized as the most efficient, market-based mechanism for influencing consumer and business behaviour, Canada remains the only one among the world’s four largest oil-producing countries with a levy on carbon. And if elected prime minister, the Conservatives' Pierre Poilievre would join with other hypocritical leaders and get rid of it. The U.S. has opted to use its ability as the world’s financial base to try to buy its way out of the problem, committing somewhere in the neighbourhood of $1-trillion to tackle GHG emissions and move its economy away from fossil fuels—distorting government fiscal pictures around the developed world in the process. Then there is the American right-wing, whose leaders, planning for a new Donald Trump presidency, are set to systematically blow up the entire U.S. climate strategy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tried to provide leadership globally on this challenge, and will do so again in New Delhi on Sept. 9-10. But despite the overwhelming sense of emergency, no one expects it to be easy to transform the G20. It includes China, which is building more coal-fired energy plants, and Russia, which, under its totalitarian leadership, seems dedicated to a program of open-ended destruction—as opposed to anything constructive. Still, it’s hard to believe the people of the world will stand by and, as Pope Francis has put it, destroy their only home. Les Whittington is a regular columnist for The Hill Times. The Hill Times

Will the world’s people destroy their only home?

The G20 summit in India next month is being viewed as a sort of last chance for the world’s largest economies to commit to the accelerated, radical action needed to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

Canada’s aging crisis and a call for reform in eldercare

Sudan’s warring sides and the long-simmering ethnic conflict

Balanced approach needed on right-to-repair bill, protecting IP rights and public safety

Reflections from a new citizen

Public Safety Canada’s dealing with natural and communication infrastructure disasters

As COP29 wraps up, will Canada finally stop funding fossils this fall?

COP28 is an opportunity for Canadian global leadership

Canada must make a strong case on climate at upcoming G20 summit

Heat waves are carrying us to the point of no return

We need to live up to our climate commitments, now

Wildfire crisis indicates need to refrain from new fossil fuel, LNG projects, say environmentalists

News

Get free news updates

Opinion

Submit a guest opinion article

resources

Advertise

subscribe

get help

Get free news updates

Submit a guest opinion article

Will the world’s people destroy their only home?

The G20 summit in India next month is being viewed as a sort of last chance for the world’s largest economies to commit to the accelerated, radical action needed to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

Get The Foreign Policy Newsletter