20 years witnessed rise in natural disasters, especially in Asia: United Nations
People pass through mud on a runway at Andi Jemma Masamba airport, after flash floods swept through North Luwu in Indonesia's Sulawesi, as several people were killed and dozens remain missing, July 14, 2020, Picture Taken July 14, 2020
Extreme weather changes triggered by climate change continue to get intenser over time. According to the United Nations, this acceleration hasfastened in the last 20 years.
Owing to such drastic changes in weather patterns, countries around the globe are paying a heavy human and economic toll. This pattern is expected to intensify over the coming years, according to the UN. Asia remains the hardest-hit by extreme weather changes, the agency added.
China had the highest instances of natural disasters at 577. The United States followed suit with 467 disaster events. India stood at number 3 with 321 disaster events, followed by Philippines (304) and Indonesia at 278. The numbers take into account the time period between 2000 and 2019.
Out of the top 10 countries on the list, eight are from Asia. Over the course of 20 years, 7,348 disaster events shook the globe, killing over 1.23 million people, and affecting 4.2 billion people. This also caused economic losses amounting upto $2.97 trillion.
In the last 20 years, the number of major floods also doubled to 3,254. Additionally, wildfires, droughts, and extreme temperatures plagued the globe.
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"More people are being affected by the expanding climate emergency," Mami Mizutori, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, said during a briefing.
Additionally, Mizutori urged governments to invest in detection systems that spot disasters early, and to also work on risk reduction strategies for disasters.
The statistics for the report were provided by Debarati Guha-Sapir from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, the University of Louvain, Belgium.
Guha-Sapir told Reuters, "If this level of growth in extreme weather events continues over the next twenty years, the future of mankind looks very bleak indeed”.
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"Heatwaves are going to be our biggest challenge in the next 10 years, especially in the poor countries," Guha-Sapir added.
Events such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes have killed more people than any other natural disasters that were taken into account for the report.
According to the report, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed more than a quarter of a million people, remains the deadliest on record.