Paktika was fast asleep when tragedy arrived.

It began with a tremor. Beds began to shake. The earthquake quickly increased in severity. Roads were ruined. Homes were reduced to rubble. At least one village was destroyed completely.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan. More than 1,000 people lost their lives, with 1,500 more injured. One witness said: "Every street you go you hear mourning."

Meanwhile, in India's Assam region, unprecedented rainfall and flooding has ruined crops, houses and entire villages. At least 45 people have died. Another 4.7 million are displaced. Many survivors face enormous hardship.

Global warming caused by carbon emissions has made flooding worse. Warmer air holds most water vapour, which leads to heavier rain-showers.

The world's most industrialised nations have contributed more to these processes than others. Eighteen percent of the world's population live in India, but it emits just 3% of greenhouse gases. The US, by contrast, has just 4.26% of the world's total population but emits about 11%.

Yet it is poorer countries that bear the brunt. In Afghanistan, heavy rain has made it harder to rescue people trapped by the earthquake. Temperatures in India recently reached 43.3C, so hot that birds fell out of the sky with heatstroke.

Others believe that the blame should not be shared equally. Fossil fuels account for 89% of all carbon emissions. By making their fuels almost essential to how we travel, consume and transport objects, fossil fuel companies have trapped us into producing harmful emissions.

We cannot pin all disasters on global climate change. Environmental scientist Jayashree Rout says: "Before linking it entirely to climate change, we need to take into account human-related factors like deforestation."

Yes: Just take a look at the numbers. People in industrialised countries produce far more harmful emissions than those in developing countries. And these emissions directly lead to climate crises.

No: If only it were that easy: the everyday emissions that we are directory responsible for are only a tiny part of the problem. During the lockdowns of April 2020, daily global emissions only fell by 17%.

Or... This is a time for unity. Historian Yuval Noah Harari says: "We are all living together on a single planet, which is threatened by our own actions". We should stop the blame game and work together.