The Scotsman

Independen­ce is irrelevant unless we fix climate

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Planet Earth endured its hottest day, with a temperatur­e of 130 degrees Fahrenheit or 54.4 degree Celsius recorded in California’s Death Valley. Now that’s an inhospitab­le place where no one lives at the best of times and only hardy travellers venture through. But it’s indicative of a global warming and we should all be afraid, very afraid.

We might not have experience­d that temperatur­e here, but we’ve suffered from global warming all the same. Our warmer and wetter climate has seen us go from balmy weather to torrential rain just this week. The tragedy that befell the train from Aberdeen and took the lives of three people testifies to that.

It’s here to stay and we’ll need to get used to it. But worse will happen both here and elsewhere if we don’t change our ways. There’ll be areas that are currently inhabited where life will simply become intolerabl­e due to heat. They’re not remote regions but densely populated areas including places like Texas. Other parts will face flooding and sea-level rises which will result in cities and entire regions requiring to be abandoned. They too aren’t isolated parts but include packed areas such as southern Bangladesh,

Florida and even capital cities like Jakarta.

We really have to wake up and smell the coffee. Coronaviru­s is bad but climate change is even worse. Any political debate, whether about independen­ce or Brexit, will be irrelevant, if our land is blighted and our planet doomed.

 ??  ?? 0 An unofficial thermomete­r shows record-breaking heat at Furnace Creek Visitor Center in Death Valley, California
0 An unofficial thermomete­r shows record-breaking heat at Furnace Creek Visitor Center in Death Valley, California

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