The “monster monsoon” might have cleared away but the “never seen climate carnage” is far from over. A long, long string of increasingly terrifying crises are sharpening their claws to unleash–with full furore–upon a country already standing on the brink of utter collapse. With an overwhelming 78,000 square kilometres of cropland washed away (an area the size of the Czech Republic) and over 80 per cent of standing food crops destroyed, a prolonged food security crisis has already translated into skyrocketing prices of everyday essentials. A battered and bruised livestock sector on top of phenomenal damages to the infrastructure aside, there’s no relief available to at least nine million Pakistanis being dragged to the bottom of the barrel. Humanitarian agencies continue to intensify the calls for coordinated international support as the cataclysmic floods now need a salve to the tune of $16.3 billion. In the meantime, PM Shahbaz Sharif’s faint resolve to not be forced to knock on rich, polluting nations with “a begging bowl” has failed to gain any traction for climate justice. As many as three months later, the wealthy nations are still not in the mood to help a crippled state trying to pay the price for their crimes. Quite distressingly, the US’s announcement of an additional $30 million aid has done little to dilute an overall apathy wherein relief measures are trickling in too little, and too late. To blame the unwillingness of others to loosen their drawstrings cannot, under any circumstances, discount our own shortcomings when it comes to a dysfunctional state and empathetic authorities. The little help that had managed to arrive, thanks to compassionate hearts, is showing signs of fatigue because no matter how moved, they cannot be a replacement for the government in sustaining over one-third of the country. Rehabilitation remains a distant dream as millions are still desperate for a single meal; clutching onto paper tents. But for how long can their ruthless determination defy the debilitating odds? *