UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautions planet Earth is on "the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator"

The COP27 summit kicked off in Egypt and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that planet Earth is on shaky ground. He used strong words and said our planet is on “the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator." This summit is follows a year of violent effects of climate change. He quoted the examples of catastrophic flooding that killed more than 1,700 people in Pakistan and uprooted 1.3 million from their homes in Nigeria. He also mentioned about drought and withered crops in Europe, large scale starvation in Africa, and loss of fish from California to France to China. These are results of rise in emissions and global warming. In his words - "Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish." Those present in the room included heads of state. They were Europe's Ursula von der Leyen, France's Emmanuel Macron and Colombia's Gustavo Francisco. The main purpose of the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh was to inject momentum into the two-week talks. Nearly 200 countries hope to agree on the collective steps necessary to slow climate breakdown. Antonio Guterres said - failing to work together will amount to a "collective suicide pact." COP27: Agree on climate action or face a 'collective suicide pact' - UN chief's ultimatum to world leaders.

Already the world faces fierce geopolitical tensions. These are due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, followed by subsequent food, energy and cost of living crises, and arguments over who should pay for the increasingly damaging impacts of climate change. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the conflict and soaring energy prices are "not a reason to go slow on climate change, they are a reason to act faster." In his words - "Climate security goes hand in hand with energy security." The PM did publicly thank Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el Sisi for his "leadership" at the talks. Simultaneously, he is pressing the Egyptian leader to release imprisoned British-Egyptian political activist Alaa Abd el Fattah. President Sisi was one of many to urge an end to the war in Ukraine. "This war must stop," he said in an emotive plea, adding that not just Egypt but likely the "entire world" was suffering as a result. However, the talks did offer some rays of hope. This is the first time that the concept of compensation made it to the agenda. This was to compensate countries for irreversible losses inflicted by climate change. Examples are - the loss of lives, collapse of jobs and sinking of islands.

Some popular stories of this blogger –

Japan rearming itself to deter China in East Asia

Cruise ships are in the revival mode

By 2028, Singapore will welcome a near 1000 feet skyscraper known as 8 Shenton Way

The new Royal Caribbean cruise ship “Icon of the Seas” boasts of a jaw-dropping design

SpaceX launched the first Falcon Heavy mission in over three years

Mystery surrounds the fate of Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop transportation technology from Los Angeles to San Francisco

Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games and the Invictus Games Foundation in 2014

Fifteen killed in a fire at a popular bar in the Russian city of Kostroma

Abandoned toy train coaches of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) to become restaurants at four stations