COVID-19 has dominated the news agenda all year year 2020. We have all been attentive to the evolution of the pandemic, but also, millions of people have had to cope with extreme weather events that have whipped the planet unceremoniously.
The extreme weather conditions have shaken the planet from end to end ; from australia to states United States has been through Africa, since the floods in China, the India and Japan, to storms and hurricanes in Europe and all America.
It seems that this year the pandemic and extreme weather have plotted an almost perfect revenge with huge losses of human lives, along with financial losses billionaires.
The economic bill of the pandemic will be seen! But this week a report has been published by the foundation Christian Aid to find out… How much money has extreme weather cost us this year? And only the 10 events that have exceeded the value of losses with more than 1.5 billion dollars.
To put ourselves in context, the report adds a table chronological of the most extreme events with the cost economic estimate for each catastrophe:
| Date | Location | Impact | Estimated cost ($US Thousands of Millions) | People who have died | Number of people displaced (when has data) |
| January | Australia | Forest fires | 5 | 34 | 65 In thousands |
| January – June | East Africa | Locust swarms | 8.5 | ||
| February and October | Europe | Windstorms | 5.9 | 30 | |
| May | Bay of Bengal | Cyclone Amphan | 13 | 128 | 4.9 In millions |
| May – November | US, Central America, Caribbean | Hurricanes | 41 | 400+ | 200 In thousands |
| June – October | Chinese | Floods | 32 | 278 | 3.7 In millions |
| June – October | India | Floods | 10 | 2,067 | 4 In millions |
| July | Japan | Floods | 8.5 | 82 | 3.6 In millions – evacuation advised |
| July – September | Pakistan | Floods | 1.5 | 410 | 68 In thousands |
| July – November | West Coast of the United States | Fires | 20 | 42 | 500 In thousands – under evacuation order |
If we add the cost caused by the damage, the bill amounts to 121 Billion dollars . A good hole for the world economy.
Most of these estimates are based only on the insured losses , which means that the true financial costs will probably be much taller s. This without counting the "small weather disasters.”
Some of the disasters happened quickly, such as the Cyclone Amphan, which hit the Bay of Bengal in May, causing losses amounting to 13,000 million dollars in a few days.
Other events unfolded over months, such as the floods in China and India, which had a estimated cost of 32,000 million dollars and 10,000 million dollars, respectively.
Although the report focuses on financial costs, which tend to be higher in richer countries, since they have of more valuable properties, some weather events extremes also hit poorer countries, although the price it was minor.
In Europe, two cyclones, Ciara and Alex, cost combined of nearly $6 billion. And in the US suffered a season of hurricanes and fires that hit records and totaled more than 60,000 million dollars in damage.
Some less populated places also suffered the consequences of global warming. In Siberia, a wave of heat during the first half of the year set a record in the city of Verkhoyansk, with temperatures reaching 38°C.
A few months later, on the other side of the world, the heat and drought caused the fires in Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. Although no casualties were reported because of these events, the destruction of these areas has a great impact on biodiversity and the ability of planet Earth to respond to waves of heat.
Some people may think that nature from time to time when it hits the planet forcefully... "it's normal!" Others may attribute the extreme weather conditions to the climate change, and others, simply. all this is very far away from my house. But actually, in recent years we have had a planet moved if we look at the disaster graph natural…
As a note, we published an article about a free course on geographic analysis of natural hazard that is still active in MOOC format.
Whatever you think, we have to prepare! We are moving on a roulette Because it's not just the game that's at stake «money», here you have to run to save yourself, and, according to the experts, the coming years – from a climate perspective – they will not be calmer.
