Why the climate crisis and the global rise of fascism are
inextricable.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 15th
June 2023
Round the cycle turns. As millions are driven from their homes
by climate disasters, the extreme right exploits their misery to
extend its reach. As the extreme right gains power, climate
programmes are shut down, heating accelerates and more people are
driven from their homes. If we dont break this cycle soon, it will
become the dominant story of our times.
A recent
paper in Nature identifies the human climate niche: the range
of temperatures and rainfall within which human societies thrive.
We have clustered in the parts of the world with a climate that
supports our flourishing, but in many of these places the niche is
shrinking. Already, around 600 million people have been stranded in
inhospitable conditions by global heating. Current global policies
are likely to result in about 2.7C of heating by 2100. On this
trajectory, some 2 billion people may be left outside the niche by
2030, and 3.7 billion by 2090. If governments limited heating to
their agreed goal of 1.5C, the numbers exposed to extreme heat
would be reduced fivefold. But if they abandon their climate
policies, this would lead to around 4.4C of heating. In this case,
by the end of the century around 5.3 billion people would face
conditions that ranged from dangerous to impossible.
These conditions include extreme disruption, morbidity and death
through heat-shock, water stress, crop failure and the spread of
infectious disease. The figures do not take into account the effect
of rising sea levels, which could
displace hundreds of millions more.
Already, weather stations in the Persian Gulf have recorded
wetbulb measurements a combination of heat and humidity beyond
the point (35C at 100% humidity) at which most human beings can
survive. At other stations, on the shores of the Red Sea, the Gulf
of Oman, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California and the western
side of south Asia, measurements have come close. In large parts of
Africa there is almost no
monitoring of extreme heat events. People are likely to have
been dying of heat stress in high numbers already, but their cause
of death has not been registered.
India, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and
central America face extreme risk. Weather events such as massive
floods and intensified cyclones and hurricanes will...
12 T-55A: 
3 FTC-2000 advanced jet trainer/light combat
aircraft:...
