Atlas of death and loss shows global climate disasters are on the rise

[Gert van der Hoek]

Atlas of death and loss shows global climate disasters are on the rise


Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Fri, 11 Jul 2014

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A global atlas of deaths and economic losses caused by weather, climate and water extremes shows disasters are on the rise worldwide, setting back development by years if not decades, its publishers said.

Between 1970 and 2012, 8,835 disasters were reported due to natural hazards including droughts, extreme temperatures, floods, tropical cyclones and related health epidemics, causing nearly two million deaths and $2.4 trillion of economic losses, according to the atlas.

Issued on Friday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at Belgium's Catholic University of Louvain, it does not track losses from earthquakes or volcanoes.

More: Trust.org

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Atlas of death and loss shows global climate disasters are on the rise

ATLAS OF MORTALITY AND
ECONOMIC LOSSES FROM WEATHER,
CLIMATE AND WATER EXTREMES
(1970–2012)
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/drr/transfer/2014.06.12-WMO1123_Atlas_120614.pdf
...
Methodology
This publication provides statistical analyses of reported
disasters in the CRED EM-DAT database spanning the
43-year period from 1970 to 2012, inclusive The analyses
have been carried out at the global scale and for each of
the six WMO Regions (see Annex III, Table 8) The reported
number of disasters, related deaths and economic losses
are assessed for the 43-year period as well as by decade
(1971–1980, 1981–1990, 1991–2000, 2001–2010) to indicate
significant disasters and trends over time Lists of the
10 worst reported disasters in terms of human deaths and
economic losses during the 43-year period are provided
for each Region According to EM-DAT, in some regions
multiple disasters could be listed under one event; however,
for the top 10 lists provided in this report, these cases
have been excluded and only disasters related to a single
event are included
...
Global
From 1970 to 2012, 8 835 weather-, climate-
and water-related disasters were reported
globally. Together they caused the loss of
1.94 million lives and economic damages of
US$ 2.4 trillion. The 10 worst reported disas-
ters in terms of human lives lost represented
only 0.1 per cent of the total number of events,
but accounted for 69 per cent (1 34 million) of
the total deaths. The 10 most costly disasters
accounted for 19 per cent (US$ 443 6 billion)
of overall economic losses. Storms, droughts,
floods and extreme temperatures all figure
on both lists of the worst disasters

Storms and floods accounted for 79 per cent of
the total number of disasters due to weather,
water and climate extremes and caused 54 per
cent of deaths and 84 per cent of economic
losses. Droughts caused 35 per cent of deaths,
mainly due to the severe African droughts of
1975, 1983 and 1984.

The 10 worst reported disasters in terms of
lives lost occurred primarily in least devel-
oped and developing countries, whereas
the economic losses occurred primarily in
developed countries and in countries with
economies in transition
...