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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that the world needs to prepare for millions of “climate refugees,” following a hearing that deemed anyone fleeing their country for climate reasons an official refugee. That means they warrant special status and cannot be turned back from entering a country.

Although climate scientists are not surprised by fact that fires are sweeping through Australia, they are surprised by the magnitude of the fires. Basically, the fires are far bigger and more devastating than expected. And this is a sign of things to come, they claim. The extremity of these droughts and fires are our new normal. There is no going back. If we don’t stop changing the climate, things are getting worse.

The fires have caused untold devastation and political turmoil. An Australian firefighter was caught on video refusing to shake the Prime Minister’s hand, an embarrassing rebuke for a Prime Minister already on the ropes because of his handling of climate change.

Australia is literally burning to the ground. The images coming out of the country depict “armageddon.” An estimated 500 million animals have been killed in the fires. The fires are so bad they’re creating their own weather. Thousands of Australians are trapped on beaches trying to escape the fires, which are now approaching Melbourne suburbs. Elsewhere, in villages in the state of Victoria, citizens are being warned that it’s too late to escape, and they must stay inside.

The fires are creating smoke plumes larger than Europe. Seventeen people have died so far. But, in a sign of the unwillingness of the Australian government to confront the climate catastrophe, the Prime Minister said that there is “no better place to raise kids” than Australia. And if that weren’t bad enough, he is busy spending his time hosting cricket teams than dealing with the crisis.

The scenes on-the-ground have compared to a war zone, half a billion animals have been killed, people are dying, and the long-term health impacts from the fires will unfold over the next decades. If there is any doubt that climate change is impacting the world, then hopefully this tragedy puts an end to it. Political leaders should take note, lest they end up embarrassed by their own people.

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