The Guanyinge temple, a 700-year old temple built on a rock, in the swollen Yangtze River in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. - Heavy rains since June have left at least 141 people dead and missing, forced nearly 15 million people to be evacuated from their homes in July alone. © STR/AFP / Getty Images
The Guanyinge temple, a 700-year old temple built on a rock, in the swollen Yangtze River in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province. – Heavy rains since June have left at least 141 people dead and missing, forced nearly 15 million people to be evacuated from their homes in July alone, according to the government.
© STR/AFP / Getty Images

Knock knock 

who is it? 

It’s me, climate change

Why are you here now?

I never left!

This might be a simple script for a social media meme, but it is also the harsh reality of our times. While we all were rightfully occupied with the pandemic and taking care of our loved ones, the other monster – climate change – has been and will continue to lurk in the background.  If you were expecting for everything to go back to how things used to be, go back to our heavy reliance on the monstrous fossil fuels after COVID is over, then it is time to wake up. There won’t be a magical divine intervention. 

Floods in South Asia are now an annual event, situations becoming more vicious​ every year.​ This year, about a total of 9.6 million people have been affected due to these floods. 

Bangladesh

A girl sits alongside a flooded walkway in Sreenagar on July 20, 2020. - The death toll from heavy monsoon rains across South Asia has climbed to nearly 200. © MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP / Getty Images
A girl sits alongside a flooded walkway in Sreenagar on July 20, 2020. – The death toll from heavy monsoon rains across South Asia has climbed to nearly 200.
© MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP / Getty Images

China

Residents riding a boat past a damaged and flood-affected house near the Poyang Lake due to torrential rains in Poyang county, Shangrao city in China's central Jiangxi province. © STR/AFP via Getty Images
Residents riding a boat past a damaged and flood-affected house near the Poyang Lake due to torrential rains in Poyang county, Shangrao city in China’s central Jiangxi province.
© STR/AFP via Getty Images
The flooded area near Poyang Lake due to torrential rains in Poyang county of Shangrao city in China's central Jiangxi province. © HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images
The flooded area near Poyang Lake due to torrential rains in Poyang county of Shangrao city in China’s central Jiangxi province.
© HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP via Getty Images

About 10,000 people have been evacuated in Anhui and Hubei provinces in China due to severe flooding and landslides following one of the heaviest rainfalls in decades. A total of 37.89 million people have been affected in China alone. One-third of Bangladesh was flooded, with 2.8 million people affected​. About 6.8 million were affected in the northeastern part of India. Nepal, Indonesia, and Japan have also been devastated by massive floods in the last few months.  

Japan 

Hitoyoshi city, Kumamoto Pref, Japan - A rainy season front caused heavy downpours across large areas of Kyushu. Flooding and landslides caused extensive damage, particularly in Kumamoto Prefecture. Dozens of people have been killed and more than one million people have been ordered to evacuate.
Hitoyoshi city, Kumamoto Pref, Japan – A rainy season front caused heavy downpours across large areas of Kyushu. Flooding and landslides caused extensive damage, particularly in Kumamoto Prefecture. Dozens of people have been killed and more than one million people have been ordered to evacuate. Last year Kyushu area was hit by torrential rains, which caused a lot of damage.
© Masaya Noda / Greenpeace
Hitoyoshi city, Kumamoto Pref, Japan - A rainy season front caused heavy downpours across large areas of Kyushu. Flooding and landslides caused extensive damage, particularly in Kumamoto Prefecture. Dozens of people have been killed and more than one million people have been ordered to evacuate. © © Masaya Noda / Greenpeace
Hitoyoshi city, Kumamoto Pref, Japan – A rainy season front caused heavy downpours across large areas of Kyushu. Flooding and landslides caused extensive damage, particularly in Kumamoto Prefecture. Dozens of people have been killed and more than one million people have been ordered to evacuate.
© Masaya Noda / Greenpeace

India

Villagers paddle their boat next to a partially submerged hut in the flood affected area of Hatishila, in Kamrup district of Assam state. © BIJU BORO/AFP via Getty Images
Villagers paddle their boat next to a partially submerged hut in the flood-affected area of Hatishila, in Kamrup district of Assam state on July 14, 2020. – Flooding is an annual phenomenon in India’s northeast, claiming hundreds of lives each year.
© BIJU BORO/AFP via Getty Images
Flood affected area of Assam in India. BIJU BORO/AFP via Getty Images
Villagers travel on a boat at the flood affected area of Gagalmari village in Morigaon district of Assam state on July 14, 2020.
© BIJU BORO/AFP via Getty Images

Nepal

A resident stands from her balcony as the Bagmati River overflowed following monsoon rains in Kathmandu on July 20, 2020. © PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images
A resident stands from her balcony as the Bagmati River overflowed following monsoon rains in Kathmandu on July 20, 2020.
© PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images

Indonesia

Search and Rescue team evacuates the flash floods victims in Radda village, North Luwu districts, South Sulawesi. The flash floods and lansdslides, triggered by torrential rains on 13 July 2020 that caused the overflowing of Masamba, Rongkang and Radda rivers, in North Sulu, South Sulawesi, claimed 32 lives and 16 others are missing. A total of 1,590 residents were affected by the flooding, Mustari, Head of the Makassar Search and Rescue Office (Basarnas), stated. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) stated that the flash floods were caused by massive deforestation for palm oil plantations in the upstream area.
© Hariandi Hafid / Greenpeace

Kenya

Floods in Migori and Homa Bay Counties in Kenya. © Greenpeace
Woman near her house, destroyed by the floods. Floods are back in Kenya and households have been displaced over the last several days. The floods have left thousands displaced, hundreds lives lost, crops have been destroyed and livestock dead. Weather patterns in East Africa have been significantly affected by the changing global climate. Extreme weather events of floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and more intense as the climate crisis deepens. With the current COVID-19 crisis and locusts invasion, flooding will exacerbate the food security situation in the country.
© Greenpeace
Aerial view of flooded villages and land. Floods are back in Kenya and households have been displaced over the last several days. The floods have left thousands displaced, hundreds lives lost, crops have been destroyed and livestock dead. Weather patterns in East Africa have been significantly affected by the changing global climate. @greenpeace
Aerial view of flooded villages and land. Floods are back in Kenya and households have been displaced over the last several days. The floods have left thousands displaced, hundreds lives lost, crops have been destroyed and livestock dead. Weather patterns in East Africa have been significantly affected by the changing global climate. Extreme weather events of floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and more intense as the climate crisis deepens. With the current COVID-19 crisis and locusts invasion, flooding will exacerbate the food security situation in the country.
© Greenpeace

During May and June, Kenya witnessed floods that left thousands displaced, hundreds of lives lost, crops destroyed, and livestock dead. Overall weather patterns in East Africa have been significantly affected by the changing global climate. Extreme weather events such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and more intense as the climate crisis deepens.

If you are still unconvinced that these violent floods are not an effect of climate change and global warming, and that the drastically changing weather patterns are nothing to be worried about, then you must surely be waiting for a spaceship to evacuate you to another liveable planet that doesn’t yet exist. 

But for those of us who are not going anywhere, let us try and protect what we have right now. Because I know there is no planet B.