Letters | As coronavirus reveals costs of complacency in a crisis, a deadlier one looms

We can still avoid the very-worst-case scenario, but only with drastic and immediate changes to all aspects of our society

Climate change

Letters

Published: 6:00am, 9 Jul 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

According to a draft UN report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seen by Agence France-Presse, dangerous tipping points beyond which planetary recovery will be impossible, such as the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet and the Amazon rainforest, could be reached in the next few years.

The ecosystems that support all of our ways of life are collapsing as we speak, and yet too many of us still pretend that we’ll be all right regardless.

No, we won’t.

To many people in the developed world, wildfires and rising sea levels probably seem a thousand miles away from their safe, comfortable lives.

But one need only to look at the record-breaking heatwave that is killing hundreds in the western United States and Canada – two of the world’s most prosperous countries – to see how wrong that assumption can be. Such events are predicted to get worse and more common soon, and will not simply be one-offs.

03:23

Canada’s ‘hottest village’ consumed by forest fire after suffering days of extreme heat

Business and supply chain disruptions caused by extreme weather events will create shortages of food and other resources even in countries rich enough to afford them.

As large parts of the world become uninhabitable, millions of people will be forced to flee to more affluent regions, dwarfing the refugee crises of today and potentially creating wars over increasingly scarce resources.

For a parent, the most sobering part of the IPCC report ought to be that at least some of these effects will become all too obvious by the time a child born today turns 30.

01:48

Hong Kong students join global school strike calling for action against climate change

Our children and grandchildren, the generations who did the least to cause this crisis, are the ones who will suffer the most for it. In a world where our basic necessities are under constant threat, no amount of material wealth will completely shield us from the effects of the climate crisis.

World race for net zero carbon by 2050 will require an Olympian effort

We can still avoid the very-worst-case scenario, but only with drastic and immediate changes to all aspects of our society. And that will involve recognising that, regardless of where we live or how much we earn, we are all in danger.

Covid-19 has already shown us the consequences of complacency in a crisis. Let’s not make the same mistake in the face of an even deadlier one.

Thomas Gomersall, Sai Kung