Climate change is causing more havoc than geophysical events like earthquakes and tsunamis. A study by UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) shows how climate change has affected us in the last 20 years- of all the 7255 disasters recorded globally between 1998-2017. Floods accounted for 43% or 3148 incidents followed by storms at 2049. Together floods and storms accounted for 72% of all disasters.
The UN report released on International Disaster Day on October 13, said about 91% of all disasters during 1998-2017 were caused by floods, storms, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events, something that should alarm policy makers here in India as it is most affected by all such climate change incidents.
What is more worrying for low income countries like India is the fact that economic losses from up to 87% of disasters are not reported. Globally, disaster losses are estimated at $520 billion per annum, pushing more than 26 million people into poverty every year. The inequality is rising and far greater than projected.
Though India is yet to develop a robust mechanism to capture all disaster losses, an estimate by an agency says annual loss of human lives on account of just floods is an average, 1600 while loss of properties is more than 1800 crore per year. Besides floods, India has been experiencing hundreds of deaths every year due to storms, heatwaves and other extreme weather related incidents.
The UN report has listed India among top five countries in the world with $80 billion in absolute economic loss due to disasters in last 20 years. The global warming of 1 degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial level has already altered the disaster map, an average 329 per year, compared to 165 during 1978-1997.
The study said, during 1998-2017, storms including hurricanes and cyclones were second only to earth quakes in terms of fatalities, killing 2,33,000 people. With 2 billion population displaced and rendered homeless, floods have affected the largest number of people, followed by affecting a further 1.5 billion in the last 20 years.
People in poor nations, exposed to natural hazards, are seven times more vulnerable than those in the richest nations. For disasters since 2000, georeferencing has found that in low income countries, an average of 130 people died per million living in disaster affected areas, compared to just 18 in high income countries.
Matter Referenced: Times of India, Ahmedabad, Thursday, 18th October, 2018.
By: Dr. Bhawana Asnani.
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