Alarm bells are going off across the world – but we’re barely listening

Sometimes it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. We spend so much time on what’s in front of us, we can miss the bigger picture. Alarm bells are going off across the world. We need to hear them.

An extreme heatwave and drought has been roasting China for 70 days straight, something that “has no parallel in modern record-keeping in China, or elsewhere around the world for that matter.”

Next door, in Pakistan, a “torrential downpour of biblical proportions” has so far killed 900 people and destroyed nearly 100,000 homes. Its neighbour India has suffered 200 heatwave days this year so far, compared to just 32 last year. South Korea received it’s  the heaviest hourly downpour in Seoul for 80 years, flooding the capital and leaving 50 cities and towns with landslide warnings.

The West has not been spared of course. The July heatwave that blanketed the US set 350 high temperature records across the country and killed more people than other extreme weather events such as floods and hurricanes. Europe is going through the worst drought in 500 years, and England has experienced the worst drought and heatwave since 1976. The expected thunderstorms just add to the sense of unpredictability.

These can’t all be coincidences. When was the last time our world was rocked by so many extreme weather events at the same time? Of course, it’s the impact of the climate crisis and just a sign of what’s to come.

The immediate impact will be felt on those affected by the heat, droughts and floods. But, just like a tsunami, there are bigger waves to come that will do far more damage.

China’s heatwave didn’t just destroy or damage large parts of its best farmland – it dried up hundreds of rivers, including parts of the Yangtze, the world’s third-largest river. That has put a halt to shipping and hydropower, and forced many companies to shut down. China will need to import large amounts of food and energy to make up for its shortfall, adding more stress to an already-stressed world.

The same problem has plagued Germany this summer as rivers have dried up, hitting transport, energy production, wildlife and farming. Sky-high energy prices in the meantime are already having a ruinous impact on businesses across the Eurozone and the world.

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The alarm bells are going off everywhere. We can’t carry on ignoring them. The climate crisis won’t just be felt in heatwaves, droughts and floods – it will be felt through rocketing food, goods and energy prices. It will be felt through famines, water shortages and millions of people moving across the world to stave off hunger.

The climate crisis will be felt through a world far more destabilised than it is already.

We are at a tipping point. Unless governments and companies are pushed to cut carbon emissions far quicker, the world as we know it will fall apart in front of our eyes. The speed at which a society can collapse – if basic goods such as food, water and energy become scarce – will shock us.

Forget 2030, or even net-zero in 2050, we cannot afford to wait that long. If we cannot heed those blaring sirens now, by the next time it will be too late.