Weather Disasters have close link with Climate-Change

IN NEWS

According to a report entitled “Count the cost of 2020: a year of climate breakdown” from a global NGO Christian Aid, ten costliest weather disasters occurred in the year 2020.

ABOUT

• In the year 2020 ten big-budget disasters saw loss of $ 150 billion of insured property making it worst than the year 2019.
• At least 3500 lives were claimed and 13.5 million people were displaced with the impact of these disasters.
• It was observed that this has long-term impact of global warming.
• The losses that occurred in this year were much more in true sense as most losses were uninsured.
• In low income countries only 4 % of economic losses due to climate related disasters were insured in comparison to the 60% of insurance in high income countries.
• Humanity has since ages witnessed extreme weather disasters but now manmade disasters have worsened the situation.
• Long term data collected related to precipitation, sea level rise, temperature etc have shown that warming of earth, etc, has direct relation with climate-change.
• Natures of tropical storms have become more disastrous as they are now stronger; last longer and cover more wide area.
• Year 2020 witnessed 30 named Atlantic hurricanes and the report warns that more such storms can occur.
• Severe summer flooding in India and China are proof of projections that how climate would impact rainfall and monsoon.
• Five out of ten events that occurred in 2020 were from Asia’s unusual extreme monsoons.
• Flood of Bangladesh in the year 2020 was worse in the history; apart from it wildfires of California, Australia and even Russia's Siberian hinterland, much of it within the Arctic Circle, are making the earth warmer and the situation will worsen as the temperature would rise.
• Average surface temperature of earth has rose up to 1.1 degrees Celsius on average compared to the late 19th-century.
• It has been reported that now the climate –change impact will be seen in extremes and not average changes.
• Paris Agreement on Climate-change says to cap the global warming below 2 degree Celsius or even to 1.5 degrees, if possible.
• UN's IPCC climate science advisory panel also supported the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature.

World Meteorological Organization

• It is an inter-governmental organization with a membership of 193 member states and terrotories.
• It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), the roots of which were planted at the 1873 Vienna International Meteorological Congress.
• It was established on 23 March 1950.
• WMO became the specialized agency of the United Nations for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences a year later.
• The Secretariat, headquartered in Geneva, is headed by the Secretary-General.
• Its supreme body is the World Meteorological Congress.