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So it has come to this. A nation on its knees, struggling to breathe under extreme heat and choking smoke. For millions of Americans this morning if you go outside, you will be be hit by a wall of smoke or unrelenting heat.

They say that politicians often operate in a bubble, removed from the rest of us. They have a blinkered view of reality, distorted by privilege and power.

The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, says we “seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat". And Big Oil’s deadly stranglehold is having devastating consequences, from floods to heatwaves, as extreme weather grips many parts of the world.

We need to act now to reduce emissions to reduce killer heat and killer floods. And yet only 10 per cent of the $17 trillion spent by governments on post-COVID bailouts has been directed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and restoring nature. 

"What we describe as a record heat-wave in a few decades, we will simply call that summer. A typical summer's day will be like the most extreme day we have seen in our lifetimes, at this point."

The warning could not be more stark. As the world warms, we face a “climate apartheid,” where the rich "escape overheating, hunger, and conflict" in an increasingly small geographical area, whilst the rest of us are “left to suffer."

Both the physical and socio-economic impacts of climate change are accelerating as record greenhouse gas concentrations drive temperatures towards increasingly dangerous levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) latest statement on the state of the global climate.

If Justin Trudeau didn’t know before. He does now. If Canadian’s Prime Minster could blame ignorance before, he can't now.

Nearly half the world’s population will suffer periods of deadly heat by the end of the century, even if we radically start to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This will rise to nearly 75 per cent if we do nothing.