UN Leader Issues Dire Warning of 'Collective Suicide' Facing Half of Humanity Due to Ongoing Climate Crisis

Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, warned that humanity is facing "collective suicide" as wildfires and heat waves are currently wreaking havoc across different parts of the globe, according to media reporting.

Guterres issued the statement to 40 ministers from 40 countries during a climate crisis meeting on Monday, July 18.

The UN warning came as extreme weather events in the form of extreme heat has been gripping the UK and a number of countries in Europe, including France, Portugal, and Spain.

The UN leader asserted to governments that "half of humanity" is now under the "danger zone," which consists of droughts, extreme storms, floods, and wildfires.

In addition, he emphasized that no nation is immune to the environmental repercussions of the climate crisis.

Since the start of 2022, natural disasters have been reported in many parts of the world, including the extreme flooding in Australia during the first quarter, the tornado outbreaks in the United States, landslides in Latin America, and the extreme heat in South Asia.

Currently, a very rare heat wave has placed Europe on its knees for more than a week already, with multiple reported casualties in Portugal, and the issuance of the first ever "Red Warning" in the UK.

The global event confirmed long-held concerns of scientists that human-caused climate change and global warming will eventually take a toll.

Collective Action or Collective Suicide

According to a media release of UN News on Monday, Guterres made the said statements in a video message to a so-called high-level climate event in city of Petersberg, Germany.

The UN chief also mentioned that the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal to limit global warming down to 1.5 degrees Celsius was already on "life support" after it came out of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021.

He added that such objectives have further weakened, and that countries continue to blame each other instead of taking responsibility for humanity's collective future, as cited by the news release of the UN.

Guterres remarked it is in our hands to address the crisis, choosing if we will resort to "collective action" or "collective suicide," as cited by The Guardian.

UK Temperatures and Climate Change

On the same day the UN warning came out, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also made an assessment that the UK's unprecedented temperatures of 40 degree Celsius or more is linked to climate change.

The WMO explained the extreme heat in Britain could occur 10 times more likely under the current climate compared to the "natural climate" without the influence of humans.

In other parts of the world, similar scenarios were also evident such as the 2022 heat wave in India and Pakistan, estimated to have killed several dozens of people.

Based on a weather forecast on Monday, CNN said more than 40 million people across the US are under heat alerts, adding it is part of the global climate crisis which pushes weather to the extreme worldwide.