{"id":23026,"date":"2022-07-19T11:11:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T18:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23026"},"modified":"2022-07-19T11:39:49","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T18:39:49","slug":"collective-action-or-collective-suicide-un-chief-pleads-for-real-climate-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/19\/collective-action-or-collective-suicide-un-chief-pleads-for-real-climate-response\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Collective Action or Collective Suicide’: UN Chief Pleads for Real Climate Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Tactical<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tactical firefighters work to prevent a wildfire from spreading further as the winds change in Louchats, France on July 17, 2022. (Photo: Thibaud Moritz\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We need a concrete global response that addresses the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people, communities, and nations,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KENNY STANCIL<\/a> July 18, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments can either come<\/strong> up with a collaborative and urgent plan to tackle the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency that is already wreaking deadly havoc across the globe or keep allowing corporations to pollute the atmosphere without limit, thereby condemning humanity to a grim future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That stark warning comes from United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, who said<\/a> Monday: “We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This has to be the decade of decisive climate action.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is in our hands,” he told diplomats from 40 countries gathered in Berlin for a three-day conference called the Petersberg Climate Dialogue<\/a>. The meeting, hosted annually for the past 13 years by the German government, marks one of the last chances to work out an international agenda for mitigation, adaptation, and compensation before the U.N.’s COP27 climate summit kicks off in Egypt this November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the conclusion of COP26 eight months ago, Guterres noted, the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5\u00baC above preindustrial levels was left “on life support.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Since then, its pulse has weakened further,” he continued. “Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, and ocean heat have broken new records.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Half of humanity is in the danger zone from floods, droughts, extreme storms, and wildfires,” Guterres pointed out. “No nation is immune.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.N. chief’s latest warning comes as large swaths of the planet are being pummeled by heatwaves and wildfires, with no immediate respite in sight\u2014at around 1.2\u00baC of warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extreme heat has killed<\/a> more than 1,000 people in Portugal and Spain in recent days, and France is experiencing what experts are calling<\/a> a “heat apocalypse.” Thousands of people in the region have been forced to evacuate due to wildfires. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is bracing<\/a> for its hottest day on record, with temperatures expected to climb even higher on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not just Europe that is being seared<\/a>. The United States<\/a>, China<\/a>, and parts of Africa and the Middle East are also suffering<\/a> from heatwaves and wildfires, which climate scientists have long warned<\/a> will increase in frequency and severity as a result of unmitigated greenhouse gas pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, “we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction,” Guterres lamented Monday. Global energy market disruptions triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have led many nations to double down<\/a> on coal, gas, and oil extraction at a moment when investments in a swift green transition are sorely needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most troubling of all, said Guterres, is that governments of the world “are failing to work together as a multilateral community.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nations continue to play the blame game instead of taking responsibility for our collective future,” he said. “We cannot continue this way. We must rebuild trust and come together\u2014to keep 1.5 alive and to build climate-resilient communities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the face of the climate crisis, nations continue to play the blame game instead of taking responsibility for our collective future.

We must rebuild trust & come together – to keep the 1.5\u00b0 goal alive & build climate-resilient communities.

Promises made must be promises kept.<\/p>— Ant\u00f3nio Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 18, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>