{"id":853,"date":"2020-12-03T08:59:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T08:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=131340"},"modified":"2020-12-03T08:59:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T08:59:20","slug":"the-planet-is-broken-u-n-chief-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/03\/the-planet-is-broken-u-n-chief-says\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The planet is broken,\u2019 U.N. chief says"},"content":{"rendered":"
As if we didn\u2019t have enough reasons to hate 2020, the United Nations just offered one more. On Wednesday, the U.N. and the World Meteorological organization released a report<\/a> on the \u201cstate of the climate\u201d and \u2013 surprise, surprise \u2013 it looks bleak. The year from hell is on course to be the third warmest<\/a> on record, viruses are jumping out of nature<\/a> to attack us, and the world has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.<\/p>\n \u201cTo put it simply, the state of the planet is broken,\u201d said U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, in a speech at Columbia University. \u201cHumanity is waging war on nature.\u201d<\/p>\n The report lays out some of the most devastating \u2013 and shocking \u2013 effects of climate change over the past year. Heavy rain and flooding overwhelmed large areas of Africa and Asia, searing heat surged across even the coldest regions of the globe (a town in the Arctic circle<\/a> recorded a temperature of 100.4 degrees in June), and the Atlantic Ocean spawned a record 30 named hurricanes<\/a>.<\/p>\n