45 Climate Pledges Abandoned as Wildfires Rage Across Europe

Five years ago, a climate scientist asked his peers to speak out against fossil fuels. Today, as massive wildfires burn near Bordeaux and Madrid, governments are retreating from climate action. The fires are so severe that experts say they would have shocked the world into action just a decade ago. Instead, society has grown numb. More than 35,000 wildfires are currently burning globally. Yet governments and trading blocs are deliberately abandoning climate pledges. At least 45 such commitments have been junked. “We have become inured,” says Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. He warns that the planet’s climate is being rewound to resemble hotter periods from its distant past. McGuire first urged climate scientists to speak out in an open letter five years ago. Now, he says, it is time to act again.