“The dystopian future is already here”, warns the UN

“Climate change is plunging millions of people into famine. It is destroying hopes, opportunities, homes and lives,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Monday.

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A man during an evacuation during the fires in Greece, August 23, 2023 in Maritsa.  (AYHAN MEHMET / ANADOLU AGENCY / AFP)

A new cry of urgency from the United Nations. “The dystopian future is already here”, the UN human rights chief declared Monday, September 11, warning of global warming which is leading to fires, floods and devastating heatwaves.

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“Climate change is plunging millions into famine. It is destroying hopes, opportunities, homes and lives. In recent months, urgent warnings have become deadly realities, again and again, around the world.”lamented Volker Türk at the opening of the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, in Geneva (Switzerland).

“Urgent action”

“We don’t need any further warnings. We need urgent action now. And we know what needs to be done. The real question is: what’s stopping us?” he said. His cry of alarm follows the failure of the G20 this weekend to call for an exit from fossil fuels, contrary to the hopes of several observers.

While climate change increases the displacement of populations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights also denounced “indifference” faced with the tragedy of migrants who perish on the migration routes. “I am shocked by the nonchalance shown in the face of the more than 2,300 people who have been declared dead or missing in the Mediterranean this year,” including more than 600 in a single shipwreck off the coast of Greece in June.


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