The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
DURING the peak summer months, when temperatures in Sindh and Balochistan sometimes cross the 50-degree Celsius mark, Pakistan is high up on the list of the hottest places on the planet. This year, this list has expanded to include countries like Canada, which for most of recorded history, has been amongst the coldest countries.
The fact that western Canada has experienced an extended heatwave with temperatures in excess of 45°C will soon be lost in the breaking news cycle, just like the high temperatures around the Arctic Sea earlier this year were quickly forgotten. But the trends are clear; extreme weather is increasingly common, and the climate science at our disposal has confirmed that global warming and other manifestations of climate change are getting worse.