As Pakistan and the United Nations asked the world for $160 million in response to catastrophic flooding in the country, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday also issued a broader warning about the human-caused climate emergency.

“It is outrageous that climate action is being put on the back burner as global emissions of greenhouse gases are still rising.”

“Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change,” Guterres said. “Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”

Tens of millions of Pakistanis are contending with over 1,000 deaths and the widespread destruction of buildings and crops, the result of what Guterres called “a monsoon on steroids—the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding.”

“Millions are homeless, schools and health facilities have been destroyed, livelihoods are shattered, critical infrastructure wiped out, and people’s hopes and dreams have washed away,” he noted. “Every province of the country has been affected.”

Recalling his time as high commissioner for refugees, Guterres said in the aid appeal video that he witnessed Pakistan welcome people from war-torn Afghanistan, and “its breaks my heart to see these generous […]