The World Bank (WB) has issued a warning to major cities around the world that it is underprepared for major risks from extreme weather and other hazards, which will only intensify due to population growth and surging migration.
By Y 2050, 1.3-B people and $AU217-T in assets in Australia alone will be affected by worsening river and coastal flooding.
The report says many if not most government officials have no idea of the range of disaster risks they face and how serious they can and will be.
A combination of sea-level rise and sinking of coastal cities, including from excessive extraction of the groundwater, could drive disaster losses in 136 of Australia’s coastal cities from $6-B a year ($A8.1-B) in Y 2010 to $US1-T a year by Y 2070.
The World
Weather caused 90% of global disasters according to a recent report entitled, “The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters 1995 to 2015.
The report was issued in Y 2015 by The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. The report utilized one of the world’s most comprehensive databases called the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), which archives information on natural disasters over the period from Y 1900 to now.
The report is a sobering reminder of how important weather is to the global economy, national security, public health, and infrastructure.
The data show that during Y’s 1995 to 2015, weather-related disasters killed over 600,000 people, and injured or adversely impacted 4.1-B global citizens.
The report’s Summary states: “Flooding alone accounted for 47% of all weather related disasters (1995-2015), affecting 2.3 billion people, the majority of whom (95%) live in Asia. While less frequent than flooding, storms were the most deadly type of weather-related disaster, killing more than 242,000 people in the past 21 years; that is 40% of the global total for all weather-related disasters. The vast majority of these deaths (89%) occurred in lower-income countries, even though they experienced just 26% of all storms. Heatwaves and extreme cold were particularly deadly in terms of the numbers of lives lost in each event (405 deaths per disaster on average). High-income countries reported that 76% of weather-related disaster deaths were due to extreme temperatures, mainly heat waves. Overall, mortality from heatwaves helped push the average toll from weather-related disasters up to 99 per event in high-income countries.”
Clearly the data show that no country is immune from global weather disasters.
Take heed, we are all vulnerable.