United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned humanity the world’s climate is breaking down, delivering his terrifying appraisal just weeks after declaring “the era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived.”
Guterres cited the E.U. monitoring body which said 2023 was likely to be the hottest year ever measured as evidence for his claim.
Proxy data such as tree rings and ice cores were used by the scientists to compare modern temperatures with figures before records began in the mid-19th century.
“The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” the veteran Portuguese socialist said in a statement, adding “climate breakdown has begun.”
DW reports Guterres put the blame for climate change squarely on humans. He said:
Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash. Our climate is imploding faster than we can cope, with extreme weather events hitting every corner of the planet.
Surging temperatures demand a surge in action. Leaders must turn up the heat now for climate solutions.
Guterres issues a similar warning in July, as Breitbart News reported. On that occasion he said “the era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived.”
AP reports scientists blame ever warming “human-caused climate change” from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas with an extra push from a natural El Nino, which is a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide.
Usually an El Nino, which started earlier this year, adds extra heat to global temperatures but more so in its second year, the scientists say.
Guterres spoke just 24-hours after Kenya’s President William Ruto pointed to “climate change” driven by successful, dynamic economies in Europe, North America and Asia, as a drain on Africa’s economic progress and it’s time to have a global conversation about a carbon tax on the world’s richest nations.
The U.S. government’s special climate envoy, John Kerry, agreed and acknowledged the “acute, unfair debt” carried by Africa nations must be addressed.
He also said 17 of the world’s 20 countries most impacted by climate change are in Africa — while the world’s 20 richest nations, including his own, produce 80 percent of the world’s carbon emissions that are driving climate change.