The disaster in Nepal-Tibet-China has been described as being like a “horror movie” — even by those in the midst of the catastrophe.

Just as the wild fires in Europe and the Black Summers bush fires in Australia, it is hard to imagine just how catastrophic these climate-fuelled events can be — until they happen — and even then it is hard to get one’s head around.

But climate scientists have warned for decades that in an increasingly warming world — the result of human-induced activity — catastrophic events are hard to predict but they will happen.

The scientists have also warned for decades that tipping points — critical limits in the Earthʼs climate and planetary sub-systems (rainforests and ice sheets) where small additional changes can trigger major and potentially irreversible shifts that continue on their own — will be more frequent.

They also pointed out the injustice associated with these disasters: that countries which had the least to do with the problem are the worst affected. This is what we are seeing in Nepal.

The climate emergency — seen today in fires across Europe, the melting glaciers in the Himalayas and the developing El Niño in the Southern Ocean — is not new. But it is getting worse. Just as shocking as the catastrophic events themselves is that those in power refuse to do anything to avert it.

This is where we need more focus. Once, the Australian Prime Minister told us that the climate emergency was the “greatest moral issue of our time”. The current Prime Minister told........

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