So much information about climate change now abounds that it
is hard to differentiate fact from fiction. Scientific reports appear alongside
conspiracy theories. Corporate lobby groups urge governments not to act.
The little progress that is made to curb carbon emissions
and contain global warming often pales in comparison to the scale of natural
disasters that continue to unfold at an unprecedented rate, from record-level
snowstorms, to massive floods, to prolonged droughts. A new report by The
Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a think-tank based in New Delhi that
has, perhaps for the first time ever, compiled an exhaustive assessment of the
whole world’s progress on climate mitigation and adaptation.
The TERI report cites data compiled by the Centre for
Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) based at the Catholic
University of Leuven in Belgium, which maintains a global database of natural
disasters dating back over 100 years. The study found a 10-fold increase to 525
natural disasters in 2002 from around 50 in 1975. By 2011, 95 percent of deaths
from this consistent trend of increasing natural disasters were from developing
countries. TERI took into account everything from heat and cold waves, drought,
floods, flash floods, cloudburst, landslides, avalanches, forest fires, cyclone
and hurricanes. In the 110 years spanning 1900 and 2009, hydro-meteorological
disasters have increased from 25 to 3,526. Hydro-meteorological, geological and
biological extreme events together increased from 72 to 11,571 during that same
period, the report says. In the 60-year period between 1970 and 2030, Asia will
shoulder the lion’s share of floods, cyclones and sea-level rise, with the
latter projected to affect 83 million people annually compared to 16.5 million
in Europe, nine million in North America and six million in Africa. The U.N.
Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) estimates that global economic
losses by the end of the current century will touch 25 trillion dollars, unless
strong measures for climate change mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk
reduction are taken immediately.
Mozambique was found to be most at risk globally, followed
by Sudan and North Korea. In both Mozambique and Sudan, extreme climate events
caused more than six deaths per 100,000 people, the highest among all countries
ranked, while North Korea suffered the highest economic losses annually,
amounting to 1.65 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). The year 2011
saw 350 billion dollars in economic damages globally, the highest since 1975.
The situation is particularly bleak in Asia, where countries
like Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Philippines, with a combined total population
of over 300 million people, are extremely vulnerable to climate-related
disasters. China, despite high economic growth, has not been able to reduce the
disaster risks to its population that is expected to touch 1.4 billion people
by the end of 2015: it ranked sixth among the countries in Asia most
susceptible to climate change. Sustained effort at the national level has
enabled Bangladesh to strengthen its defenses against sea-level rise, its
biggest climate challenge, but it still ranked third on the list. India, the
second most populous country – expected to have 1.26 billion people by end 2015
– came in at 10th place, while Sri Lanka and Nepal figured at 14th and 15th
place respectively. In Africa, Ethiopia and Somalia are also considered
extremely vulnerable, while the European nations of Albania, Moldova, Spain and
France appeared high on the list of at-risk countries in that region, followed
by Russia in sixth place. In the Americas, the Caribbean island nation of St.
Lucia ranked first, followed by Grenada and Honduras. The most populous country
in the region, Brazil, home to 200 million people, was ranked 20th.
The UK takes the most historic responsibility with 940
tonnes of CO2 per capita emitted during the industrialisation boom of
1850-1989, while the U.S. occupies the fifth slot consistently on counts of
historical responsibility, cumulative CO2 emissions over the 1990-2011 period,
as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity per unit of GDP in 2011, the
same year it clocked 6,135 million tonnes of GHG emissions.
China was the highest GHG emitter in 2011 with 10,260
million tonnes, and India ranked 3rd with 2,358 million tonnes. However, when
emission intensity per one unit of GDP is additionally considered for current
responsibility, both Asian countries move lower on the scale while the oil economies
of Qatar and Kuwait move up to into the ranks of the top five countries bearing
the highest responsibility for climate change.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-climate-change/
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