It's not only a heatwave, it's a Climate Emergency

 

As of 1pm today the temperature has risen above 40C for the first time in the UK's history,  according to provisional Met Office figures. The mercury hit a record 40.2C at London Heathrow by 1pm.

The climate crisis is very real  and it's time to act. We have not seen anything like it , and we can't compare this looming heat emergency to the summer of 1976.

A warmer world is due to human induced climate change, that makes  it extremely difficult to break extreme heat thresholds, We continue to see this across the planet, not just in Europe where heat records have also been shattered in regions of Belgium, France, Netherlands and Germany, which has led to impassioned demands for governments to take more ambitious action to combat the climate crisis. Sadly a lot of people are vehemently in denial over this. But I've never seen any evidence to the contrary, the fact remains it's getting hotter and far more uncomfortable very quickly at an alarming rate of knots.. If anything , we've been far too conservative  in our estimates in our estimates of the speed, scope and severity of even moderate levels of climate change. Thousands of people have already died from this heat wave.Extreme heat is also endangering the environment and homes, with wildfires raging in Portugal, Spain and France.

British authorities have described it as a "national emergency" and southern Britain is under an “extreme” heat warning for the first time on record. We're not approaching a climate emergency, we're already in one.

Meanwhile Governments are sitting on their hands while the planet burns, None of the current Tory candidates treat the climate emergency with the seriousness it deserves instead has focused on tax cuts and culture war issues, rather than the climate.. Despite a flurry of headline-grabbing pledges, national commitments bring us nowhere near to meeting the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees. According to Climate Action Tracker, 73% of existing “net-zero” pledges are weak and inadequate—“lip service to climate action.” What is more, a yawning gap remains between pledges, which are easy enough to make, and actual policies, which are all that really count. You can pledge all you like, but what we need is action. Right now existing government policies have us hurtling toward 2.7 degrees of heating in the coming decades. 

As temperatures approach 3 degrees, 30-50% of species are likely to be wiped out. More than 1.5 billion people will be displaced from their home regions. Yields of staple crops will face major decline, triggering sustained food supply disruptions globally. Much of the tropics will be rendered uninhabitable for humans. Such a world is not compatible with civilization as we know it. The status quo is a death march. Our governments are failing us,failing all of life on earth.
In light of  all of this rebels from XR have today  cracked windows at News UK and sprayed ' Tell the Truth' and ' 40 degrees =Death'; to highlight the failure of the Murdoch press to cover the heatwave and the Climate Crisis. 

The more the climate heats up  the more the public has to turn up the heat on governments. Averting climate catastrophe needs radical action now, a rapid phase out of all fossil  fuels, an end  to deforestation, and an  end to  capitalism, and the  need to  switch to a socioeconomic system that prioritizes  preserving our only home mother earth and it's biosphere for future generations.

Ultimately this means  replacing our destructive global economic system with one that offers potential for sustainability, greater fairness, and human flourishing.

Let's not forget that rich countries are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the excess emissions that are causing climate breakdown. They also have levels of energy use that are vastly higher than other countries, and vastly in excess of what is required to meet human needs, with most of the surplus being diverted to service corporate expansion and elite consumption. Zero by 2050 is a global average target. A fair-share approach would require rich countries to eliminate most fossil fuel use by no later than 2030 or 2035, to give poorer countries more time to transition.

Even in the short term, there are innumerable steps that can be taken to steer our civilization toward a life-affirming trajectory. Nature itself can be part of the solution, trees, wetlands, plants and rivers which all help to reduce air temperatures. We must invest in nature  and drastically cut emissions. Obviously all this means our lifestyles will all have to change drastically,  our overt reliance on consumerism, but it is  so necessary ,as  the stakes have never been higher, and we can't afford to wait until 2050, because by then  it will be too bloody late and we will all be fucked. We have a  choice though collective action or collective suicide.