Climate 2020.

THE decade past had begun with predictions of an impending climate change catastrophe, and it has ended with the reality of not paying closer attention to those warnings. Apocalyptic scenarios had been imagined by evidence-backed scientists - and not doomsday merchants - who foretold that the extreme weather patterns would only worsen in the coming years, as global temperatures kept increasing and sea levels continued to rise. Ten years ago, extreme heatwaves were documented in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Russia; a drought gripped the Amazon River basin; and heavy snowstorms swept across North America. In Pakistan, powerful floods caused by heavy rainfall led to over 2,000 deaths, while millions of others were displaced. They were forced into becoming climate change refugees, as their homes and livelihoods were swept away by the waters. Now, as we enter the new decade, rising global temperatures have broken all previous records, with many countries recording extreme weather patterns. In 2019, hurricanes struck the island of Puerto Rico; Europe suffered two deadly heatwaves; and cyclones devastated the Bahamas and Japan. Meanwhile, thousands of fires gripped the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and bordering Bolivia in August. And ferocious bush fires first sparked in November continue to rage in...