As the world grapples with the escalating crisis of climate change, it is becoming increasingly evident that its effects are far from equitable. While the entire planet is feeling the consequences of a warming climate, it is the low-income communities and developing countries that bear the heaviest burden. From disrupted livelihoods to increased vulnerability to...
Tag: floods
Ten countries and territories saw severe flooding in just 12 days. Is this the future of climate change?
September started with a typhoon that ripped through Hong Kong, uprooting trees and flooding the city. It was the first of a slew of extreme weather events that have hit ten countries and territories in just 12 days – the most catastrophic being the floods in Libya, which have killed more than 11,000 people according to the...
EU disaster response fund ‘strained at the limits’ by climate fuelled crises
Requests for emergency assistance have gone up by 400 per cent in the last two years. The EU urgently needs more funding to respond to climate change-fuelled crises, the European Commission has warned. Its emergency aid reserve was exhausted in both 2021 and 2022 and natural disasters have increased this year. Europe is emerging from...
Climate change and crumbling infrastructure made Libya’s devastating floods worse, scientists say
‘Ferocious strength’ of storm that caused Libya’s devastating floods was powered by climate change, scientists say. The cyclone that caused devastating floods in Libya is the latest extreme weather event to carry the hallmarks of climate change, scientists say. The Mediterranean storm dumped torrential rain on the Libyan coast set off flooding that’s killed thousands of people. The death...
‘We are not prepared’: Disasters spread as climate change strikes
The floods, droughts, wildfires and extreme heat sweeping the globe are offering a dose of the climate future that scientists have warned about for decades — and all the ways the world is not ready. From a nearly depleted federal disaster fund to state insurance markets that are faltering under the weight of multiple catastrophes, extreme weather is testing the ability of...
A brief introduction to climate change and torrential rainstorms
These readings will get you up to speed on the causes and impacts of flooding around the world. By now, it’s clear, one result of global warming is more flooding. Considering only instances caused by torrential rainstorms (not hurricanes, glacial-lake outbursts, or other factors), here is a partial list of countries that had significant floods...