- by Anna Pha
- The Guardian
- Issue #2118
Over 100,000 marched in Vancouver, 2019. Photo: Chris Yakimov – flickr.com (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Large swathes of Europe, the US, Canada, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, South Africa, and Kenya are under water or in the process of dealing with the devastation of mass flooding, tornadoes, typhoons, landslides and other inundations of water.
Flooding affects drinking water and sewerage systems, can result in power outages, and poses the risk of disease.
Governments struggle to cope with the thousands of displaced people. The cost runs into billions of dollars – beyond the reach of poorer countries. Most governments have not taken the necessary mitigation and adaptation action to prevent or cope with such emergencies. Poorer nations often can’t afford to.
At the same time as flooding, other parts of the globe face drought, and record wildfires that are more extreme than ever experienced before – in Chile, Colorado, and California, parts of the African and American continents to give a few examples.
The number and intensity of extreme weather events is on the rise. As the United Nations Secretary-General recently warned, the Earth is no longer “warming” but “boiling.” We are running headlong into catastrophic human disasters in the coming years if global carbon dioxide emissions are not curbed and climate change is not effectively mitigated.
FLOODS
After a sweltering summer, central Europe experienced mass flooding. Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, and Romania have been hit by some of the worst flooding on record with thousands of people displaced, and homes, businesses and crops destroyed. When the water subsides, they face a bill running into the billions of dollars.
North Carolina declared a state of emergency following a tropical storm that dumped a massive 45 cm of rain in 12 hours. At the same time, other parts of the US were fighting out-of-control wildfires.
Henan province in China went from one extreme of parched crops to 60 cm of rain in 24 hours – three-quarters of what they would normally expect in a whole year. Hubei, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces have also been hit with flooding and landslides. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, lives lost, homes and infrastructure destroyed, and crops and livestock wiped out.
Vietnam was hit with Typhoon Soulik, quickly followed by Typhoon Yagi. Flooding and landslides from that storm had left at least 329 people dead or missing and caused an estimated US $2 billion damage. Several hundred thousand people were moved to temporary shelter.
There are similar stories to be told about Thailand, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
PROFIT-DRIVEN
“The overall context hasn’t changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net zero,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a statement.
2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 is shaping up to be even hotter. If warming continues at the same pace, the 1.5 limit set by the Paris climate conference could be reached by 2032. We are in dangerous territory!
Yet the Australian and many other governments around the world the world fail to take the climate crisis seriously. Profit-driven fossil fuel corporations have these governments in their pockets.
The pursuit of maximum profits is short-sighted beyond belief. There will be no profits when humanity ceases to exist. Capitalism is digging its own grave and taking humanity with it.
The Labor government has proved to be a true friend of the fossil fuel sector. Liberal leader Peter Dutton told the Minerals Council, “I give you this commitment: a Dutton Coalition Government will be the best friend the mining and resources sector in Australia will ever have.” He is trying to keep up with the ALP.
In Australia, the cost of insurance in flood-prone areas has risen exponentially and is out of reach for more people than ever. Governments at all levels must take responsibility to rehouse people living in those areas, or take the necessary adaptation measures. Future planning should take into consideration possible flooding, bushfires and rising sea levels.
Instead of subsiding fossil fuels and approving new projects, the government should speed up the phasing out of fossil fuels. At the same time, the public sector should accelerate the development of renewable sources of energy production and storage.
No worker needs to be worse off under the process. There is the opportunity for hundreds of thousands of new jobs, with appropriate training provided. It could serve as a boost to regional development as dirty power stations are replaced by renewables.
