Raising temperatures: Pakistan climate catastrophist Sherry Rehman

When Sherry Rehman speaks it seems as though the world is ending.

Perhaps that's because Pakistan -- where she serves as climate change minister -- has a front-row seat for the cascading catastrophe of global warming.

To the north, rapid glacier melt is unleashing flash floods; in the south, savage heat is surpassing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit); the west is speckled with wildfires, and the eastern city of Lahore is draped in suffocating perma-smog.

"It is apocalyptic," the 61-year-old former diplomat told AFP.

She was appointed minister after a tumultuous government change in April, which coincided with the onslaught of a nationwide heatwave.

"When you have an apocalypse in front of you... have you not watched Hollywood movies? You have to face it head on."

- 'Perfect storm' -

Pakistan is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but ranks eighth on an index compiled by NGO Germanwatch of nations most exposed to extreme weather events.

That leaves the country of 220 million people bailing out its own climate disasters whilst lobbying bigger polluters to turn the tide.

Rehman has launched a rhetorical offensive, hectoring the great and the good at global forums with unabashed descriptions of a doomsday-in-motion.

She framed the argument in the long arc of history: Pakistan, once part of the British empire, freed itself only to be gripped by "climate colonialism".

"There has been so much climate denialism internationally, with the big polluters not wanting to give up their bad habits or to pay the price for going green," she said.

"We're being told 'it's a perfect storm in your neck of the woods, and you just have to do this by yourself', which is absolutely not possible."

"I don't even sense empathy very often," added Rehman, who served as Pakistan's ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2013.

Making matters worse, Pakistan is in an economic tailspin with runaway inflation, a debt crisis and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Even Rehman's home in the cloistered capital of Islamabad hums with the sound of a petrol generator. Heatwaves have exacerbated an energy deficit, and blackouts are on the rise.

Pakistanis could be forgiven for having more quotidian concerns than the end of all days.

"Communicating a science-based crisis in our lives, created probably very far away from our neck of the woods, is very hard to explain," she said.

"We still have to speak in easily digestible terms.

"I'm going have to say, 'This is why you're able to breathe better. This is why you're able to have an environment that is not overheating. This is why your water is drinkable'."

- Fighting climate change and sexism -

Rehman's role as a soothsayer of inconvenient truths is complicated in deeply patriarchal Pakistan.

The number of female parliamentarians has plateaued at around 20 percent for the past two decades, according to World Bank data.

Benazir Bhutto, the nation's only female prime minister -- and from Rehman's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) -- was slain in 2007, an assassination that deeply scarred the national psyche and which remains unsolved.

A pastel portrait of Bhutto has pride of place in Rehman's library, more prominent, even, than a pop-art print of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Outside the door, a nude female bust is prominently placed -- in a country where the bodies of women are rigorously policed by harsh modesty codes.

"There's always a reaction to women taking their power and also speaking out," said Rehman.

"It's been two steps forward, one step backward."

In public appearances, Rehman exudes unapologetic energy. Male co-panellists hogging the microphone are notified of their transgressions; those who cut short her answers are similarly chastised.

"I tell myself, 'When men are competing with you, you're in a good place'," she said. "I don't mince my words, and I don't see any reason to."

"We pay the price daily in dealing with constant backlash, and with constant fiddling and quibbling over the gender issue."

That is not her "daily challenge", she said, but there is a stark intersection in the interests of countering sexism and global warming.

"As climate change unleashes its furies, women are at the forefront," she said, picking up the fire and brimstone theme again.

"It's women who are the nurturers of the soil, of the crops, of the water."

UN warns heatwaves will happen more often until 2060s
Geneva (AFP) July 19, 2022 - Heatwaves like the one stifling western Europe are becoming more frequent and the trend is set to continue until at least the 2060s, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The current heatwave should act as a wake-up call for countries pumping ever more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said.

"They are becoming more frequent and this negative trend will continue... at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation efforts," WMO chief Petteri Taalas told a press conference in Geneva.

"Thanks to climate change we have started breaking records... In the future these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal, and we will see even stronger extremes," he added.

"Emissions are still growing and therefore it's not sure that we would see the peak in the 2060s if we are not able to bend this emission growth development, especially in the big Asian countries which are the largest emitters."

The WMO held a joint press conference with the World Health Organization, its sister UN agency, about the fierce heatwave hitting western Europe.

The heatwave fuelled ferocious wildfires before sweeping north and pushing temperatures in Britain over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time.

"We are expecting the peak to be today across France, the UK, possibly even Switzerland," said Robert Stefanski, the WMO's applied climate services chief.

"And the question everybody's asking, looking ahead, when will this end? Unfortunately, looking at all the models... possibly not until the middle of next week."

Europe's heat record was broken last year when the thermometer hit 48.8C in Sicily in southern Italy.

"Our concern is that this is happening with shorter time periods between these records," Stefanski said.

Greece's record temperature had stood since 1977 before it was broken in 2021 and similar temperatures were being reached this year, he said.

Maria Neira, the WHO's environment, climate change and health director, recalled how the 2003 European heatwave cost more than 70,000 lives.

"This heat will compromise the capacity and the ability of our bodies to regulate our internal temperature. And this can result in a cascade of illnesses, starting obviously with heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, hyperthermia."

Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com

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UK breaches 40C for first time, heat records tumble in France
London (AFP) July 19, 2022
A punishing heatwave fuelling ferocious wildfires in western Europe pushed temperatures in Britain over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time on Tuesday and regional heat records tumbled elsewhere. Grassland fires erupted on the edge of London, with one forcing the evacuation of 14 people as farm buildings, houses and garages were consumed by the flames. "I was sunbathing in my garden and then a massive black cloud came across," said Ciar Meadows, a 30-year-old housewife ... read more