The Guardian view on worsening extreme weather: the injustice of the climate crisis grows ever clearer | Editorial

<p>The increasing ferocity and frequency of tropical storms imposes an unbearable burden on countries including Jamaica</p><p>The geographically uneven risks from increasingly extreme and dangerous weather grow ever starker. As Jamaica and other Caribbean countries <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/06/hurricane-melissa-jamaica-relief">clear up after Hurricane Melissa</a>, and Typhoon Kalmaegi heads west after killing nearly 200 people in the Philippines and Vietnam, the case for more international support to countries facing the most destructive impacts from global heating has never been stronger.</p><p>Last week’s five-day rainfall in Jamaica was made <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/06/hurricane-melissa-storm-strength-climate-crisis">twice as likely</a> by higher temperatures, according to initial findings from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/18/how-do-we-know-that-the-climate-crisis-is-to-blame-for-extreme-weather">climate attribution studies</a>. The current death toll across the Caribbean is at least 75. The economic and social costs are hard to quantify in a region that is still recovering from 2024’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/22/caribbean-nations-still-facing-humanitarian-crisis-weeks-after-hurricane-beryl-destruction">Hurricane Beryl</a>. Crucial infrastructure has been destroyed before the loans used to build it have even been paid off. Andrew Holness, Jamaica’s prime minister, estimates that the damage there is roughly equivalent to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/05/jamaica-pm-says-hurricane-melissa-caused-damage-equivalent-to-nearly-one-third-of-gdp">one-third of the country’s gross domestic product</a>.</p><p><em><strong>Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this artic