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Opinion | World must be on a war footing to fight deadly climate emergency
- With winter in the Southern hemisphere now hotter than summer in the North and the Antarctic up to 40 degrees warmer, the time to act is now
- Like in a major war, climate change is bringing immense death and destruction; it’s time to put the world economy on a war footing to save our habitat
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I recently read an article on an Australian newsfeed about what has been happening in South America. It not only took my breath away; as a scientist, I felt a mixture of incredulity, fear, anger and despondency that reached the pit of my stomach.
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It is midwinter in the Southern hemisphere but climate scientists are aghast at the temperatures just recorded across vast swathes of Chile and Argentina. These are 10 to 20 degrees Celsius warmer than normal, and thought virtually impossible for this time of year.
It has been described as one of the most extreme weather events the world has seen. The temperatures are even higher than those usually recorded in the Northern hemisphere at the same latitudes in midsummer, at over 35 degrees in some places.
This is so far from normal that if we don’t take notice now and act, then when will we?
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We keep hearing about the latest climate extremes as a “wake-up call”. This includes the recent rainfall in Beijing that is the worst since records began 140 years ago, causing deadly flooding. There have been so many wake-up calls lately about the emerging climate catastrophe that I am surprised we can get any sleep at all.
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