Now is the sinister time of year when the Barons of Big Oil gather together, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the blessing of most world leaders, to celebrate the 350 million needless deaths they plan to cause between now and 2050 in the name of profit.

Yes, it’s the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, also known as COP30, the event where the fossil oligarchs toast their victory over humanity and its future - and the fact they have successfully played the entire world for mugs, hypnotising us into climate paralysis. This time the ‘Conclave of the Pernicious’ was hosted by Brazil.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what UN chief Antonio Guterres had to say: “Too many corporations are making record profits from climate devastation, with billions spent on lobbying, deceiving the public and obstructing progress.”

And in a sideswipe at the politicians in countries like the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Canada, China, India and Australia who are the chief enablers of the death and destruction, he said: “Too many leaders remain captive to these entrenched interests. Too many countries are starved of the resources to adapt – and locked out of the clean energy transition. And too many people are losing hope that their leaders will act.” Fair enough.

Absent from the talks was Trump’s US, per capita the world’s worst climate vandal and backslider. It was too busy, allegedly, trying to stitch up a new offshore natural gas deal for its chief predator, Exxon. So too were China, Russia and India.

However, this didn’t stop Colombian President Gustavo Petro declaring Trump a foe of humanity, and Chilean President Gabriel Boric from branding him a liar for his fatuous claim that climate change was a “con job”. As Lincoln might have said: you can fool most Americans most of the time – but the rest of the world is seeing Trump pretty clearly.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated bluntly that Earth “can no longer sustain humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels”.

The death toll from the use of fossil fuels is not confined to climate change – far from it. The bulk of it is down to air pollution, toxic food, water and homes, plastic pollution, pesticides, drugs and other petrochemical byproducts. These claim the lion’s share of the 14 million deaths per year which the World Health Organisation says are attributable to the human living environment. But the climate toll is large and mounting, already in the millions.

Here’s what _The Lancet_ said in its 2025 summary of health impacts, prepared for COP30: “Driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is increasingly claiming lives and harming people’s health worldwide.

“Of the 20 indicators tracking the health risks and impacts of climate change in this report, 12 have set concerning new records in the latest year for which indicator data are available.”

Heat deaths are the most publicly visible marker of climate impact. In recent years they have grown to around 546,000 per year, says The Lancet, up 63% since 1990. As to the cause, “On average, 16 (84%) of the 19 life-threatening heatwave days that people were exposed to annually in 2020-24 would not have occurred without climate change.” So there’s not much doubt who those deaths are down to – the fossil barons and their political bootlickers.

Flood, storm, tidal surge, famine and other climate deaths are harder to attribute, but are rising in lockstep with the planet’s temperature nonetheless. “The incidence of extreme (rainfall) days (which affect health and can trigger flash floods and landslides), increased in 64% of the world’s land surface between 1961-90 and 2015-24,” states The Lancet.

Meanwhile, it adds. a record-breaking 61% of the global land area was affected by extreme drought in 2024, which is 299% above the 1950s average, further threatening food and water security, health and safety, and inflicting heavy economic losses. So, if you notice food prices going up at the supermarket, you know who (among others) to thank: the fossil barons and their political bootlickers.

Additionally, hotter and drier weather is increasing the incidence of wildfires. The year 2024 recorded a record-high 154,000 deaths from wildfire smoke inhalation. So you know who to thank when you start coughing up your lungs: the fossil barons and their political bootlickers.

Meantime, ticks and mosquitoes are on the rampage in our hotter, wetter world: the dengue transmission potential of mosquitoes went up 49% in 2024, leading to 7.6 million cases in the first few months, while 364 million more folk were at risk of tick fever, according to The Lancet’s experts. So you know who to thank for your next bite: those ticks in the fossil fuel corporations and their political bootlickers.

Some may regard this analogy as a tad harsh but, seriously, that’s what ticks do – spread death and disease (like the delightful Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever) while busily sucking your blood.

And, with an argument even economists might understand, The Lancet states the world lost US$1.1 trillion last year — about 1% of its GDP — thanks to climate-related declines in productivity, rising absenteeism and overstressed healthcare systems. Added to which is another third of a trillion in direct climate damage like big floods, storms, fires etc. As private insurance is increasingly refusing to pay for such losses, this cost is falling more heavily on the state and taxpayer. Again, thanks to those whose sold an extra 1.6% of carbon in the first place.

In the eyes of The Lancet, world leaders have basically turned their backs and blocked their ears to half a century of climate and health warnings: emissions are rising faster, forests are falling, more people are dying, adaptation and “net zero” are on indefinite hold. Political agendas in leading countries have downgraded the priority of climate action by a half or more.

The “fossil fuel giants (including Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, and Chevron) have paused, delayed, or retracted their climate commitments, increasingly pushing the world towards a dangerous future”, The Lancet added. Meanwhile the big banks contributed US$611 billion to expanding oil, gas and coal output in 2024. And governments added a further three quarters of a trillion dollars a year in subsidies to fossil fuel corporates, despite many promising to cease the practice.

The ultimate price for all this, warns The Lancet, will be paid for in millions of human lives.

Meanwhile, the Conclave of the Pernicious rumbles on, uselessly, with Turkey and Australia vying for the shame of hosting the next one, COP31 in 2026.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.