There is a James Bond movie in which the villain is grappling with James Bond beneath a parachute that is totally on fire, completely oblivious that they are plunging to their deaths on the earth below which mirrors world leaders’ attitude to climate change.
Heat waves are currently three times more persistent and intense than in any time in the last century.
Already this century 166,000 have dropped dead from heat waves, 22,000 alone last summer and those figures are expected to quadruple within two decades.
Already, forest fires are destroying twice as much in area as at any time in the last century making heaven knows how many of earth’s creatures extinct in the process.
As we race past the tipping point of irreversible climate change, world leaders tinker with mediocre solutions such as carbon credits which are about as useful as a parachute on fire.
There is a cost of life crisis and until one leader has the fortitude to state the obvious, we will to continue to live in their version of a fool’s paradise as it comes to an abrupt end.
Even then, as heat waves and floods destroy most of what is left on Mother Earth, Vladimir Putin – somewhere beneath a bunker – will be hurling bombs and bomb-laden drones at what is left of the Ukraine.
Gary Hollis
Mellons Bay
