Weather Disasters Driven By Climate Change Killed 2 Million In 50 Years: Report

Climate-related disasters, such as floods and heatwaves, have grown fivefold in the last 50 years, killing over 2 million people and costing $3.64 trillion in total losses, according to a UN agency report. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) claims that its 'Atlas' is the most thorough examination of death and economic losses caused by weather, water, and climate extremes ever published.

Calamities With High Death Records

It looks at 11,000 events that occurred between 1979 and 2019, including big disasters like Ethiopia's 1983 drought, which was the single most deadly event with 300,000 deaths, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was the most costly with $163.61 billion in losses, reported NDTV

The number of disasters increased roughly fivefold from the 1970s to the most recent decade, adding to concerns that extreme weather events are becoming more often as a result of global warming, according to the analysis.

According to the WMO, climate change and improved catastrophe reporting are both contributing to the increase in the frequency of such adverse climatic conditions. When storms like Harvey, Maria, and Irma ravaged the United States in the 2010s, costs soared from $175.4 billion in the 1970s to $1.38 trillion in the 2010s.

Research Can Assist In Developing Policies

Despite the fact that hazards have become more expensive and frequent, the yearly mortality toll has dropped from over 50,000 in the 1970s to roughly 18,000 in the 2010s, indicating that improved planning was paying off. The WMO expects that the research, which includes a thorough regional breakdown, can be used to assist countries in developing policies to better safeguard people