Disasters Quadruple Over Last 20 Years: Oxfam
LONDON - Weather-related disasters have quadrupled over the last two decades, a leading British charity said in a report published on Sunday.
From an average of 120 disasters a year in the early 1980s, there are now as many as 500, with Oxfam attributing the rise to unpredictable weather conditions cause by global warming.
“This year we have seen floods in South Asia, across the breadth of Africa and Mexico that have affected more than 250 million people,” said Oxfam’s director Barbara Stocking.
“This is no freak year. It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people.
The number of people affected by disasters has risen by 68 percent, from an average of 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994 to 254 million a year between 1995 to 2004.
“Action is needed now to prepare for more disasters otherwise humanitarian assistance will be overwhelmed and recent advances in human development will go into reverse,” Stocking said.
Oxfam wants the UN conference on Climate Change in Bali in December to agree a mandate to negotiate a global deal to provide assistance to developing countries to cope with the impacts of climate change and reduce green house gas emissions.
(Reporting by John Sinnott, Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
© 2007 Reuters
Those who still debunk the consensus of the non political & dedicated international scientific community join Bush right wing’s war on science, & our planet.
Rather than pursuing even modest effort to understand the effects and consequences of mans activities they follow the deceptive data issued by the right wing and energy cartel.
Evidence linking carbon pollution to warming has long been as close to certain as science can be. Its causes, consequences, and mitigation requirements have been documented by many dedicated environmental organizations including The Union of Concerned Scientists.
Often overlooked is the fact that the same measures needed to mitigate global warming would be necessary even if it were not an issue. Conservation, alternative energy development, anti- pollution refinements, etc are essential for other vital environmental reforms such as air and water quality, reductions in toxic waste generation, land preservation, etc.
Contrary to right wing assertions, greenhouse gas reduction measures could only improve our economy by lessening our trade deficits, and improving our security by reducing our dependance on foreign oil. We could also regain some of our lost world respect resulting from our opposition Kyoto while arrogantly contributing disproportionally to carbon pollution.
The immeasurable environmental and social destruction from our indifference to carbon pollution and related environmental measures can only worsen if we allow this reckless and unlearned president, guided by special interests to continue their war on our planet.
The dangerous manipulation of essential scientific data used by Bush’s team to conceal and derail corrective measures for this threat and other vital environmental reforms has always been apparent–and all indicators show no change in their direction. The gravity of these violatiions ecllipse the Monica Lewinski scandel which led to an impeachment ans aree more significang than Watergate which brought down a presidency.
The republican party’s constant denial of global warming all for the sake of political expediency-or in their case-so they could follow Bush off a cliff-has done humanity no good of any kind. We are in, what’s known as, the worse case scenario.
Many Americans, not just the ruling Republicans, regard science as somehow subject to politics. If they don’t like the scientific evidence or conclusions drawn from it, just reject the scientific consensus in favor of some looney (often in the pay of a large corporation) who has a different view. In the lap-dog media, all such situations are treated as requiring ‘balanced’ reporting, making it appear that the ‘hoax’ position has comparable position to the planetary temperature increase side.
Increasingly, Americans are uneducated, uniformed, and generally stupid about the things that matter most. But we all can recite the latest deeds of Paris, Lindsay, and Britney, as well as all the winners on American Idol. Can anyone say ‘Fall of the American Empire?’
I do not doubt that we are seeing some of the effects of global warming, but I strongly suggest that we question such “statistics” as “weather-related disasters have quadrupled over the last two decades” coming from a non-scientific agency, especially a cash-strapped agency like Oxfam.
One of the main reasons for the “increase in disasters” is the wider availability of technology and communications. What is considered a disaster today may never have been reported in the past if it occurred in a remote region. For example, the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake/tsunami on Boxing Day 2004 was in our face because 10,000 tourist video cameras recorded it and appeared on YouTube. 50 years ago it would have been days or weeks before we saw a grainy post-tsunami picture, and we would never have heard about the effects on remote coastal villages.
We need to be careful in reporting global warming data and effects, otherwise the skeptics will just turn it on us and erode our credibility.
The right wing rich elite has never been interested in the economy, growth or advancement.
THEY WANT MONEY FOR THEMSELVES - ONLY.
If everyone was doing well the rich would not be special or powerful. It is only the poor and the middle class who care about others. (a few exceptions either way)
“We need to be careful in reporting global warming data and effects, otherwise the skeptics will just turn it on us and erode our credibility.”
Good point, WTF. Skeptics will jump on any reason to deny the fact of global warming and our relationship to it. There are many factors why we know about global climate change, and one is immediate news reporting. That immediacy, however, can skew what we read and hear, so we have to use judgment.
That said, who is responsible for what piece of global warming is becoming less relevant with time. The fact is that GW is here and we need to act now, both personally and as societies.
READ about 2012 folks/’sheeple’
been to most Mayan ruins and studied the math, since ‘77,
the old ones on the way just before Zacatecas on the way to surf Pasquales
and at night in Tikal, Palenque, etc
whatever! will be in CA as it is rising
Do you people have any clue as to why the situations as it exists to day.
Money is created out of NOTHING as an interest bearing DEBT.
The Third World countries repatriate millions of dollars DAILY servicing the loans , the capital having been paid several times over.
So get of you backside and campaign for interest free money to help the world; in general and humanity in particular
“Many Americans, not just the ruling Republicans, regard science as somehow subject to politics. If they don’t like the scientific evidence or conclusions drawn from it, just reject the scientific consensus in favor of some looney …who has a different view…”
Exactly. The phenomenon you are describing is called “postmodernism” and it does indeed infect both left and right - from Critchton and other global warming denialists, to the “911 truth movement, to Bush’s staff, to those nutty lit-crit professors at most US Uni’s.
All the while the Bush family has fiddled while the planet burns. GHW Bush refused to act, saying, “The American way of life is not up for negotiation.” GW (Global Warming) Bush stalled, saying the science wasn’t conclusive. Now that all doubt has been banished, he’s stalling with nonsensical, cosmetic proposals. Al Gore didn’t, as the media claim, become a convert to environmentalism after being deposed by Bush; his record goes back to his time in the Senate. This is yet another issue where the Democrats need to be bold and will be on the right side morally, politically and historically by doing so.
PJD: I don’t get it. Why lump people together under the rubric of ‘post-modernism’ who seem to have little in common? Those who deny global warming can do so from the Left like Alex Cockburn who is neither an English professor, nor a skeptic of the official 9/11 theory.
As an English professor, I don’t agree with the superficial notions of post-modernism and that seems like a passing fad, even in English departments.
Further, the official theory about what supposedly happened on 9/11 is highly suspect and I see no reason not to be skeptical about it. The official commission report, for example, never printed a single word of testimony by whistleblowers like Sibel Edmonds and instead put a gag order on her. Google her name. Nor did they print a word of testimony by William Rodriquez, “the last man out of the building,” the janitor who saved so many others and who maintains that explosions occurred in the basement before the plane hit the building. More tellingly, the whole matter was never treated like a criminal case, oddly. No charges were ever placed against anyone, not even OBL. No extradition was ever requested, nothing was ever demonstrated in a court of law! It’s all been pure allegation.
But none of that has anything to do with global warming, an issue that is simpler and demands immediate action far more draconian than any government is willing to undertake.
Dewey finally succeeded - Americans are ‘trained’ - not educated. I’m glad the bastard died before he could enjoy his success… but his nightmare lives on.
Remember “The Day the Earth Stood Still”? Alien Klatu shut down all power generation across the globe until nuclear disarmament was achieved. We sure could use an activist alien today!
Short of that, or an act of God, we’re screwed. Maybe two solar peaks from now (about 2025?) things will be so bad and oil so expensive, we will all be in survival mode. Rationing of food, water and fuel, and martial law where necessary.
Its funny so many other negative trends are coming due about that time. Peak Oil, the Medicare and Social Securiy deficits, the end of the antibiotic revolution, drained aquifers all over the globe, overpopulation… What’s going on?
I should add another example of media reporting of disasters. Summer 1976, the Tangshan (China) earthquake. This did not make the front page of a single US newspaper, and was mostly relegated to something of equivalent reporting urgency as Punxsutawney Phil’s mating habits. 750,000 people died. Granted, information flow out of China was a profound bottleneck, but it also indicates the level of US concern for activities outside it’s own borders (unless US national interests are threatened).
We ain’t seen nothin yet.
Is this surprising? Whatever the actual statistics, there are more humans around living on the edge of existence than ever before. Double the population, and so double the numbers at risk, the density of people, and halve the resilience of societies to cope with worsening conditions. Soon it will be double the greenhouse gas concentrations.
What The FXck’s point is a good one. But the undenable fact is that the poles are melting, causing glaciers on greenland to rip off the bedrock causing earthquakes there. This is no small effect. If the whole Greenland Icecap breaks up, we get a calculable 20 feet of seawater rise worldwide. This is already starting to happen as statistics show massive increases in fresh water dumping into the sea. The world wide sea level rise may only increase a few milimeters this decade, but, combined with low pressure systems and planetary pulled high tides this will result in meters of flooding. (Yes, for the bush-brained, the amount of high tide you get is caused by the moons gravity pulling on water, along with other factors.) We have witnessed this on my island many times. Our town now floods annually, whereas it was flooding typically bi-annually ten years ago; old locals typically agree that trend has rapidly increased.
So while the average sea level rises very little, that fluid will collect en mass in a place and time (highest tide and tropical storm converging simutaneously,) drowning many residents of the doomed island commnity (sort of like a tsunami is not a big wave out at sea. It get worse as it encroaches on a small basin area like a lagoon.) A tropical storm or typhoon or hurricane is an excessive Low pressure area; allowing the sea to rise much higher than it would on a 29.92 inch mercury day (or standard 1013.1 milibar day)
I expect this effect to get worse, not better, as populations are increasing, and artic temps have been 15-20 degrees hotter than average at times.
So while they may be using GW to panhandle us, the basic fact of more fluid in the pot is undeniable.
Anybody want to buy some beachfront property from me (it’s currently five miles from shore, but that may change!)
A N D
We definitely need to develop a new measurement system, to allow us to measure EXACTLY how far that we’ve cranially anally inverted ourselves (stuck our heads up our a$$s?)
Namaste
__ __ __ __ We must be the change
__ __ __ __ we wish to see in the world __ Gandhi
This line from JAWS is applicable to the current situation:
Richard Dreyfuss:
“Uh, I think you are going to continue to ignore this problem until the shark swims up and bites you in the ASS!”
Same holds true for the current administration (and others to come if we persist on supporting candidates like Hillary Clinton and the like). A major natural disaster would need to directly hit the white house…e.g. a major flood that will actually wisk the building off from its foundation and wash it away. Only then will the US government put global warming at the forefront of pressing issues! Ah, the folly of selfish human beings!
Gee..if the world as we know it actually “ended” then the Rapture will be all the better. Bush and those who believe this idea are not bothered by what happens to the planet or the riff raff ( aka NOT his BASE) because Jesus will renew the world and make it whole and beautiful again for them. Bush and the rest of his crime family actually think they are going to be rewarded for all this…..
Look, nobody really cares. The cyclone that destroyed large areas of Bangledesh got less coverage than the door busters on Black Friday. Our efforts to help the people there are simply pathetic. I saw a news clip where they where handing out bottled water at the rate of one bottle for 7 people. If they had filled the truck with water purification equipment instead of water bottles they might have made an impact but that was a cruel joke.
Unless you’re rich white folks your disaster is you’re problem. Don’t bother us ruling elite types. We’ve got the middle-class white folks bought off with plasma TV’s and other junk so don’t expect help from them either.
The rich are going to build nice climate controlled houses on Alaska’s north slope and leave the rest of you to toast. Get used to it.