DemandClimateJustice Staff

From November 6–17 countries will gather once again for the 23rd annual Conference of the Parties (COP 23). Several “roundtable” discussions will take place prior to the meeting proper, where the APA co-chairs hope Parties can get on the same page in terms of understanding each others’ views before the real negotiations begin.

Unless you are an environmental geographer or a regular reader of The World at 1°C, chances are you apply the term “natural disaster” to events such as Hurricane Harvey, the landslides in Sierra Leone which claimed 1000 lives, or any of the other countless climatic shocks felt over the last month. The fact is that nothing could be more unnatural…

While U.S. centrism is a sad, frustrating reality of the world we live in, and something this very bulletin aims to counteract, we must also guard against false dichotomies and be wary of crocodile tears from people who would rather we remain isolated in our suffering than express true solidarity with each other as victims of a system hell bent on exploiting us and the nature around us. It is precisely at times like this that we must fall back on simple but profound notions like compassion, like camaraderie and solidarity, for we are all connected.

Midsummer in the Northern Hemisphere has been and gone but the mercury just keeps rising. With the June data logged, 2017 goes down as having had the second hottest January — June period ever — putting it on track to be one of the second hottest year on record.

But ours is a world of vibrancy. Ours is a condition of hope and a moment of opportunity. The crisis is here and it is truly apocalyptic. But we do not have to accept that it will inevitably worsen until it swallows us all. We can forge a way out. We have to.

For many of us, the facts and figures of climate change mean very little by way of tangible threat. Yet, as this bulletin attests to, the changes to the earth’s climate are resulting in unimaginable loss and trauma for real human beings — people like you — around the world, today.