THE United States has suffered one of its most disastrous floods in recent history. According to a BBC report, the north-east of the country was severely affected by flash floods and tornadoes which claimed the lives of at least 45 people countrywide.

The United States, like several other countries the world over, is experiencing climate-related destruction. This poses an existential threat to humanity, as scientists warned several decades ago, but policymakers in the industrialised world did not see it fit to pay much heed.
One consequence of that failure to take action is the alarming level of global warming which is likely to increase further, unless governments around the world take drastic action to reduce emission levels.
This recent flood in the United States, especially in New York and New Jersey, is a wake-up call, if, indeed, one was necessary. Both states saw unprecedented levels of rainfall. A number of residents became trapped in flooded basements and vehicles. According to media reports in the Queen’s and Brooklyn areas, home to thousands of migrants, including Guyanese, at least fourteen persons lost their lives, among them a two-year old boy. Eleven of those who perished died by drowning, while being trapped in flooded basements. According to New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city saw a horrifying storm unlike anything experienced before. He was critical of weather experts, who, he said, had forecast between three and six inches of rainfall during the course of the day, but which actually turned out to be significantly higher. “The suddenness; the brutality of storms now is different,” he said, adding that the latest extreme weather was the “biggest wake-up call”.
And in a press release, New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul said that millions of dollars in damages were inflicted on the city of New York. President Joe Biden said that “historic investment” is needed to deal with the climate crisis. The US, he said, is facing climate-related destruction across the country, and tackling it is “a matter of life and death”.

Video footage showed cars floating down flooded roads, with people crying out desperately for help. Many were forced to abandon their vehicles, and passengers on trains and buses were stranded for hours, due to the build-up of flood waters caused by Hurricane Ida.
Flash floods are not uncommon in the world today; we have had our own experience recently in Guyana, where unprecedented levels of rainfall resulted in severe damages to crops, livestock and homes and other infrastructure.

US President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in New York and New Jersey, and ordered federal assistance to supplement local response efforts, as a result of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ida.
As President Biden observed, Climate Change is a global fight. He has recommitted the United States to rejoining the Paris Accord, which was jettisoned by his predecessor. This is a step in the right direction. The United States is a global world power, and has considerable leverage in the fight against global warming. The potential to advance the process of combatting global warming has been given a boost with the commitment by leading industrialised nations, including the US, China, the EU, Japan and South Korea to honour the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to below pre-industrial levels.
The science of climate is becoming clearer and more authoritative, and it is becoming much more imperative for policymakers to step up to the plate.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali has welcomed the United States rejoining the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the target set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by Year 2030. Guyana, he said, looks forward to working closely with the United States to build a more resilient and sustainable post-COVID-19 future, and to combat and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change.

Guyana has embraced a low-carbon approach to national development, which has won the commendation of several countries. It is time for other nations to do likewise. The stakes are high; time is of the essence! And the time is now!