标签： North America

Jamaica faced unprecedented devastation as Hurricane Melissa, a ferocious Category 5 hurricane, made landfall on Tuesday, October 28, 2025. With sustained winds reaching a staggering 185 miles per hour (295 kilometers per hour), Melissa surpassed the intensity of historic storms like Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The storm brought ferocious winds, torrential rains, and life-threatening conditions, marking it as the most powerful hurricane ever to strike the island nation. The US National Hurricane Center issued urgent warnings, emphasizing the extreme danger and urging residents to seek shelter and avoid windows, even during the deceptive calm of the storm’s eye. Tragically, seven deaths have already been reported across Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, with officials expressing concern over residents ignoring evacuation pleas. Jamaican government minister Desmond McKenzie implored citizens to prioritize safety, noting that many of the island’s 880 shelters remained underutilized. The combination of storm surges and heavy rainfall, expected to be measured in feet rather than inches, threatens to trigger catastrophic floods and landslides. Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, a national icon, took to social media to urge his fellow Jamaicans to stay safe. Meanwhile, residents like Ishack Wilmot in Kingston described the harrowing experience of losing electricity and water while enduring the storm’s relentless intensity. The Jamaican Red Cross, preparing for widespread infrastructure disruptions, highlighted the anxiety caused by Melissa’s slow progression, which prolonged its destructive impact. Meteorologists and climate scientists have linked the storm’s unprecedented strength to human-driven climate change, which has exacerbated the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather events. Hurricane Melissa is expected to continue its path of destruction, moving toward eastern Cuba after devastating Jamaica. Experts warn that the storm’s scale and impact could rival historic hurricanes like Katrina, Maria, and Harvey, underscoring the urgent need for global action on climate change.

Hurricane Melissa, a catastrophic Category 5 storm, made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday morning, October 28, 2025. According to the US National Hurricane Center, the hurricane unleashed maximum sustained winds of up to 295 kilometers per hour, posing severe threats to the Caribbean island. The storm’s arrival has triggered widespread flooding and significant damage across Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, as torrential rains and powerful winds battered the region. Emergency services have been mobilized to assist affected communities, while residents brace for further destruction. Hurricane Melissa’s intensity underscores the growing concerns over increasingly powerful storms in the Atlantic hurricane season, attributed to climate change. Authorities have issued urgent warnings for residents to seek shelter and avoid unnecessary travel. The hurricane’s trajectory is being closely monitored as it moves across the Caribbean, with potential impacts on neighboring nations.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is urging a paradigm shift in the global approach to climate change, emphasizing that solutions should prioritize human welfare over mere temperature targets. In his recent memo titled ‘A New Way to Look at the Problem,’ Gates argues that the fight against climate change must not undermine health, development, and poverty reduction, particularly in the world’s poorest nations. He calls for a ‘strategic pivot’ from focusing solely on limiting rising temperatures to addressing poverty and preventing diseases. Gates reassures that while climate change is a serious issue, it ‘will not be the end of civilisation,’ and he believes that innovation and science will be central to managing its impacts. He projects that by 2100, average global temperatures could rise by 2°C to 3°C compared to pre-industrial levels, surpassing the 1.5°C limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, he is optimistic that new zero-carbon technologies will become widely available within the next decade, enabling countries to meet rising energy demands without exacerbating climate change. Gates also stresses that success in combating climate change should be measured by improvements in people’s lives, especially in low-income countries, rather than just reductions in emissions or global temperature. Through Breakthrough Energy, Gates has supported over 150 companies working on solutions ranging from low-carbon cement and steel to advanced geothermal energy and AI-driven agriculture. He warns that climate policies must not deepen inequality, citing examples of well-meaning policies that left poor communities worse off, such as fertiliser bans that caused food shortages. Gates believes that focusing on energy, agriculture, and health will have the greatest impact on people’s ability to withstand climate challenges, particularly in developing nations. He emphasizes that health and economic growth can reduce climate-related deaths more effectively than any single environmental measure, citing research from the University of Chicago’s Climate Impact Lab that shows economic growth in low-income countries could cut climate-related deaths by more than 50% by the end of the century. Gates outlines two key priorities for the international climate agenda: driving the Green Premium — the extra cost of choosing clean technologies over fossil fuels — down to zero, and rigorously measuring impact to ensure limited resources go toward initiatives that deliver the greatest benefits for human welfare, from vaccines and malaria prevention to agricultural innovation.