UN Agency: Weather Disasters Becoming More Common and Costly
2021-09-02
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1The number of disasters driven by climate change, such as floods and heatwaves, have increased by five times over the past 50 years.
2Such disasters have killed more than 2 million people and cost governments $3.64 trillion since 1979.
3A United Nations agency reported the findings Wednesday.
4The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says its "Atlas" is the most complete examination ever of death and economic losses from weather, water and climate extremes.
5The agency looked at about 11,000 disasters that took place between 1970-2019.
6They included major catastrophes such as Ethiopia's period of extreme dry weather in 1983.
7The drought killed more than 300,000 people and was the single most deadly event the WMO looked at.
8Also included was Hurricane Katrina, which struck the United States in 2005.
9That disaster was the most costly included in the report, with losses of $163.6 billion.
10The agency said the growing number of major disasters was due to both climate change and improved disaster reporting.
11WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told reporters Wednesday: "Thanks to our early warning service improvement we have been able to have a decrease of the casualties at these kind of events, but the bad news is that the economic losses have been growing very rapidly and this growth is supposed to continue."
12The report's findings add to evidence that extreme weather events are becoming more common due to climate change.
13Costs from the events also rose from $175.4 billion in the 1970s to $1.38 trillion in the 2010s.
14While disasters became more costly and common, the yearly death toll has fallen from more than 50,000 in the 1970s to around 18,000 in the 2010s.
15Such findings suggest that better planning efforts are working.
16The WMO hopes the report will be used to help governments develop policies to better protect people.
17More than 91 percent of the 2 million deaths occurred in developing countries, the report said.
18The report noted that only half of the WMO's 193 members have complex early warning systems.
19It also said that "severe gaps" in weather observations, especially in Africa, were making early warning systems less effective.
20Mami Mizutori is head of the U.N. office for disaster risk reduction.
21She urged the world's major economies to help hard-hit developing countries pay for warning systems and risk modeling.
22I'm Ashley Thompson.
1The number of disasters driven by climate change, such as floods and heatwaves, have increased by five times over the past 50 years. Such disasters have killed more than 2 million people and cost governments $3.64 trillion since 1979. 2A United Nations agency reported the findings Wednesday. 3The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says its "Atlas" is the most complete examination ever of death and economic losses from weather, water and climate extremes. 4The agency looked at about 11,000 disasters that took place between 1970-2019. They included major catastrophes such as Ethiopia's period of extreme dry weather in 1983. The drought killed more than 300,000 people and was the single most deadly event the WMO looked at. Also included was Hurricane Katrina, which struck the United States in 2005. That disaster was the most costly included in the report, with losses of $163.6 billion. 5The agency said the growing number of major disasters was due to both climate change and improved disaster reporting. 6WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told reporters Wednesday: "Thanks to our early warning service improvement we have been able to have a decrease of the casualties at these kind of events, but the bad news is that the economic losses have been growing very rapidly and this growth is supposed to continue." 7The report's findings add to evidence that extreme weather events are becoming more common due to climate change. 8Costs from the events also rose from $175.4 billion in the 1970s to $1.38 trillion in the 2010s. 9While disasters became more costly and common, the yearly death toll has fallen from more than 50,000 in the 1970s to around 18,000 in the 2010s. Such findings suggest that better planning efforts are working. 10The WMO hopes the report will be used to help governments develop policies to better protect people. 11More than 91 percent of the 2 million deaths occurred in developing countries, the report said. The report noted that only half of the WMO's 193 members have complex early warning systems. 12It also said that "severe gaps" in weather observations, especially in Africa, were making early warning systems less effective. 13Mami Mizutori is head of the U.N. office for disaster risk reduction. She urged the world's major economies to help hard-hit developing countries pay for warning systems and risk modeling. 14I'm Ashley Thompson. 15The Reuters news agency reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Susan Shand was the editor. 16__________________________________________________________ 17Words in This Story 18catastrophe - n. a terrible disaster 19hurricane - n. an extremely large, powerful, and destructive storm with very strong winds that occurs especially in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean 20casualty -n. a person who is hurt or killed during an accident, war, etc. 21rapidly - adj. happening in a short amount of time: happening quickly 22death toll -n. the number of people who are killed or injured in an accident, disaster, war, etc. - usually singular 23occur - v. to happen 24gap - n. a missing part