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Wednesday, September 12th, 2018

Fossil fuel dependence poses ‘direct existential threat’, warns UN chief

Author:    
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)/Associated Press
Publication Date:     Tue 11 Sep 2018 06.49 EDT
 Link: Fossil fuel dependence poses ‘direct existential threat’, warns UN chief
Stephan:   The other nations of the developed world, and many developing nations, all understand that climate change is going to profoundly change the world. Only the Trump administration, which I picture as a collection of zombies, still puts the greed of the few over the wellbeing of the many.

 

UN secretary-general António Guterres delivers a speech on climate change at the UN headquarters in New York, 10 September.
Credit: Li Muzi/Barcroft

United Nations secretary general António Guterres has warned that the world is facing “a direct existential threat” and must rapidly shift from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent “runaway climate change”.

Guterres called the crisis urgent and decried the lack of global leadership to address global warming.

“Climate change is moving faster than we are,” Guterres said on Monday. “We need to put the brake on deadly greenhouse gas emissions and drive climate action.”

He said people everywhere are experiencing record-breaking temperatures and extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods “are leaving a trail of death and devastation”.

As examples, Guterres pointed to Kerala, India’s worst monsoon flooding in recent history, almost 3,000 deaths from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year, disappearing Arctic sea ice, some wildfires so big that they send ash around the world, oceans becoming more […]

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