Deadly climate milestone passed
The world is hotter. People are dying. Livelihoods are being destroyed. Africa continues to pay the highest price. And the rich are dancing all the way to their offshore banks
Sipho Kings
In September, The Continent reported on Libya’s devastating floods, and on the wall of water that destroyed the town of Derna, with the headline “There will be many, many more Dernas”. Over 11,000 people died, and rebuilding the 20 affected communities requires an estimated $1.8-billion.
This week, BP executives celebrated near-record profits of $13.8-billion, following similar ululations by Shell.
Those profits come from burning fossil fuels, the root cause of global heating. That pollution could be less, but petrochemical companies suppressed the science proving a link, and ran slick PR campaigns for decades to prevent any action.
A day after the BP announcement, the European Union’s climate agency said the world was on average 1.5 °C hotter in the last 12 months. Each of the last eight months have set heat records. This is the hottest period in recorded history.
In 2015, nearly 200 countries agreed to “limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. The agreement recognised “that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”. African countries fought hard for that number because anything higher poses an existential problem.
The continent, responsible for just 4% of carbon emissions, is acutely vulnerable to climate changes, thanks in large part to centuries of its resources and wealth being stolen to grow other parts of the world. That means communities are less resilient to the droughts and floods that wipe away lives and livelihoods. In the last year, this has happened in places like Somalia (drought and then floods), the DRC (floods), Madagascar (floods), Zimbabwe (drought) and Niger (drought).
Scientists expect that in a decade, 1.5°C hotter years will be normal. And even if every country does what it has promised to do to reduce emissions, the world will still heat by over 2.5°C.
Meanwhile, the number of billionaires globally has grown from 1,800 in 2015 to 2,600 today.
