{"id":38472,"date":"2024-12-30T14:09:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T22:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38472"},"modified":"2024-12-30T14:09:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T22:09:56","slug":"un-chiefs-message-to-the-world-as-blistering-2024-ends-we-must-exit-this-road-to-ruin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/30\/un-chiefs-message-to-the-world-as-blistering-2024-ends-we-must-exit-this-road-to-ruin\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Chief&#8217;s Message to the World as Blistering 2024 Ends: &#8216;We Must Exit This Road to Ruin&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/united-nations-secretary-general-antonio-guterres.jpg?id=51107214&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=90&amp;coordinates=0%2C157%2C0%2C843\" alt=\"United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres speaks at the U.N. headquarters on February 22, 2023.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Photo: Lev Radin\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;This is climate breakdown\u2014in real time,&#8221; said United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/jake-johnson\">JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dec 30, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<a href=\"https:\/\/giving.commondreams.org\/-\/XKQWGZVR\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said in a year-end message on Monday that &#8220;we have no time to lose&#8221; in the face of the worsening global climate crisis, which pushed temperatures to a record high this year and supercharged&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/extreme-weather-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deadly extreme weather<\/a>&nbsp;around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Today, I can officially report that we have just endured a decade of deadly heat,&#8221; Guterres said in a video message posted to social media. &#8220;The top 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years, including 2024.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is climate breakdown in real time. We must exit this road to ruin,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;In 2025, countries must put the world on a safer path by dramatically slashing emissions and supporting the transition to a renewable future. It is essential\u2014and it is possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Even in the darkest days, I\u2019ve seen hope power change.<br><br>There are no guarantees for what\u2019s ahead in 2025.<br><br>But I pledge to stand with all those who are working to forge a more peaceful, equal, stable and healthy future for all people. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wD28KQBq2S\">pic.twitter.com\/wD28KQBq2S<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Ant\u00f3nio Guterres (@antonioguterres) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/antonioguterres\/status\/1873655412198916332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 30, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Guterres&#8217; call to action came in the waning days of what scientists say is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2024-hottest-year\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">almost certain<\/a>&nbsp;to be the hottest year on record and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/1-5-degrees-limit-breach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first full year<\/a>&nbsp;to breach the critical 1.5\u00b0C temperature threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), echoed Guterres&#8217; warning about the dire consequences of the status quo, saying in a statement Monday that &#8220;if we want a safer planet, we must act now.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s our responsibility. It&#8217;s a common responsibility, a global responsibility,&#8221; Saulo said. &#8220;Every fraction of a degree of warming matters, and increases climate extremes, impacts, and risks. Temperatures are only part of the picture. Climate change plays out before our eyes on an almost daily basis in the form of increased occurrence and impact of extreme weather events.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, with emissions&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/wmo.int\/media\/news\/greenhouse-gas-concentrations-surge-again-new-record-2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">continuing to surge<\/a>&nbsp;as the rich nations most responsible for the climate emergency&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/wealthy-countries-oil-gas-production\">refuse to ditch fossil fuels<\/a>, world leaders convened for a U.N. climate summit in Azerbaijan that was swarmed by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/cop29-fossil-fuel-lobbyists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">oil and gas lobbyists<\/a>. The key gathering ended with a deal that climate advocates&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/cop29-baku\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described as a step backward<\/a>&nbsp;in the necessary push to rein in fossil fuel emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Climate-denier and fossil fuel booster Donald Trump&#8217;s looming return to office in the U.S.\u2014the world&#8217;s largest historical emitter\u2014has campaigners and scientists increasingly concerned about the future of existing global climate agreements such as the Paris accord, from which the president-elect has pledged to withdraw&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/06\/28\/trump-paris-climate-treaty-withdrawal-again-00165903\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">once again<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One recent analysis projected that a second Trump administration&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.carbonbrief.org\/analysis-trump-election-win-could-add-4bn-tonnes-to-us-emissions-by-2030\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">could unleash<\/a>&nbsp;an additional 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, which would inflict $900 billion in global climate damages and deal a devastating blow to efforts to forestall runaway warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout 2024, Guterres used his role as head of the U.N. to sound the alarm about the world&#8217;s dangerous trajectory, saying in an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/emissions-gap-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">October address<\/a>&nbsp;that &#8220;there is a direct link between increasing emissions and increasingly frequent and intense climate disasters.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re playing with fire,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but there can be no more playing for time.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/jake-johnson\">JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/jake-johnson\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres speaks at the U.N. headquarters on February 22, 2023.&nbsp; (Photo: Lev Radin\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images) &#8220;This is climate breakdown\u2014in real time,&#8221; said United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres. JAKE JOHNSON Dec 30, 2024 (CommonDreams.org) United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said in a year-end message on&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/30\/un-chiefs-message-to-the-world-as-blistering-2024-ends-we-must-exit-this-road-to-ruin\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38473,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38472\/revisions\/38473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}