- Ravens race past Steelers, Texans top Chargers as NFL playoffs start
- Scramble to shelter animals from Los Angeles wildfires
- Carefree Andreeva hails coach Martinez for making her 'fearless'
- China's women e-sports players defy sexism for love of the game
- Seoul confirms Ukraine captured two North Korean soldiers
- South Korea's Yoon will not attend first impeachment hearing
- Zheng, Andreeva win as rain lashes Australian Open on day one
- Olympic champion Zheng survives scare to reach Australian Open second round
- Firefighters race to beat LA blazes as winds grow and death toll hits 16
- Tunisian rehab barge offers hope for vulnerable sea turtles
- Spaun shoots 65 to seize Hawaii PGA lead as Fishburn fades
- Storms halt play on outside courts at Australian Open
- Tech sector's energy transition draws attention at Vegas show
- Texans make most of Chargers nightmare offense to win playoff opener
- Djokovic reveals 'energetic disc' as new secret weapon
- Stay inside to avoid toxic LA wildfire smoke, residents warned
- French far-right firebrand Le Pen buried in private ceremony
- Special counsel who led Trump prosecutions leaves US Justice Dept
- Rabiot helps Marseille keep pressure on PSG
- Shalulile rescues Sundowns as FAR Rabat, Pyramids qualify
- Milan flop on Conceicao's San Siro debut, Juve draw again
- Man City captain Walker wants to leave, says Guardiola
- Sudan paramilitary leader says 'lost' Al-Jazira state capital
- LA fires threaten more homes as winds forecast to pick up
- Five things to know about New Glenn, Blue Origin's new rocket
- Penalty king Kane sends Bayern past Gladbach
- Man City hit Salford for eight, Liverpool cruise into FA Cup 4th round
- French far-right firebrand Le Pen's buried in private ceremony
- Draw specialists Juve held by derby rivals Torino
- Rockets-Hawks game postponed due to winter storm
- Blue Origin set for first launch of giant New Glenn rocket
- Toulouse, 11-try Bordeaux-Begles into Champions Cup last 16
- Dutch police detain hundreds at climate protest
- Lyon slip to Ligue 1 loss at Brest
- Toulouse edge Sharks, Bordeaux-Begles hammer Exeter to reach Champions Cup last 16
- Liverpool, Chelsea cruise into FA Cup 4th round, Brentford stung by Plymouth
- Benin's women, pillars of voodoo celebrations
- Marmoush fires Frankfurt to victory amid Man City link
- Tram collision in France's Strasbourg injures 20
- New Red Bull football boss Klopp in stands for Paris FC match
- German far-right outlines radical programme as protesters rally
- Shami returns to India squad for England T20s after year absence
- Atalanta miss chance to top Serie A with Udinese stalemate
- Syria, Lebanon pledge firm ties after years of tensions
- De Mevius and Brabec take Dakar sixth stage honours
- Ukraine says questioning POWs it claims are North Koreans
- France hands over second army base in Chad amid withdrawal
- LA fires expand as winds forecast to pick up
- De Mevius, Brabec, take Dakar sixth stage honours
- Sudan army says enters key paramilitary-held Al-Jazira state capital
RBGPF | 100% | 60.49 | $ | |
SCS | -3.01% | 10.97 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.42% | 7.07 | $ | |
NGG | -3.3% | 56.13 | $ | |
RIO | 0.36% | 58.84 | $ | |
BP | 0.54% | 31.29 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.79% | 22.92 | $ | |
BTI | -2.34% | 35.9 | $ | |
GSK | -1.99% | 33.09 | $ | |
VOD | -1.99% | 8.05 | $ | |
AZN | 0.64% | 67.01 | $ | |
BCC | -1.31% | 115.88 | $ | |
RELX | -0.86% | 46.37 | $ | |
BCE | -2.92% | 22.96 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.65% | 23.25 | $ | |
JRI | -1.16% | 12.08 | $ |
Climate change spells 'terrifying' future: UN rights chief
Climate change threatens to deliver a "truly terrifying" dystopian future of hunger and suffering, the United Nations' human rights chief warned Monday.
Volker Turk slammed world leaders for only thinking of the short term while dealing with the climate crisis.
Turk told a UN Human Rights Council debate on the right to food that extreme weather events were wiping out crops, herds and ecosystems, making it impossible for communities to rebuild and support themselves.
"More than 828 million people faced hunger in 2021. And climate change is projected to place up to 80 million more people at risk of hunger by the middle of this century," said Turk.
"Our environment is burning. It's melting. It's flooding. It's depleting. It's drying. It's dying," he said, evoking a "dystopian future".
"Addressing climate change is a human rights issue... there is still time to act. But that time is now," he said.
The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries agree to cap global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 -- and 1.5C if possible. The global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15C above the 1850-1900 average.
On current policy trends, the planet will be 2.8C warmer by the end of the century, according to the UN's IPCC climate science advisory panel.
"We must not deliver this future of hunger and suffering to our children, and their children. And we don't have to," Volk said.
"We, the generation with the most powerful technological tools in history, have the capacity to change it."
Turk said world leaders "perform the choreography of deciding to act and promising to act and then get stuck in the short term".
He called for an end to "senseless subsidies" of the fossil fuel industry, and said the Dubai COP28 climate summit in November and December needed to be the "decisive game-changer that we so badly need".
Turk urged the world to "shun the green-washers" as well as those who cast doubt on climate science, driven by their own greed.
The Human Rights Council's 53rd session runs until July 14.
P.M.Smith--AMWN