25.10.2022
Climate crisis worsens flood damage worldwide — UN
Photo by: Graffizone / iStock
Heavy rains and rising sea levels continue to claim lives in many parts of the world. The situation is getting worse because of the climate crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said. This was reported by the newspaper The Guardian.
According to the head of the United Nations, global warming is melting glaciers and causing the ocean to expand thermally, pushing water harder and harder onto the land. In addition, high temperatures lead to increased evaporation of moisture, which then turns into rain and snow in the atmosphere.
“We have been at war with nature, and nature is striking back, and that strike is devastating,” said António Guterres.
Devastating floods in Pakistan have inundated a third of the country and killed more than 1,700 people. The country received almost three times the average rainfall between June and August. In Sindh, the seasonal rainfall was more than eight times what it had been.
More than 9 million people were evacuated, more than 2 million homes were destroyed and millions of families were forced to live in makeshift tents or under roadside shelters.
The damage is estimated to be between $30 and $35 billion, but could actually be higher, as the rains washed away 4 million hectares of crops, more than 30,000 kilometres of roads, as well as bridges, railways and power lines.
Nigeria in 2022 faced the worst floods in decades, flooding half (18 of 36) of the country’s states. The floods killed more than 600 people and displaced more than a million.
Scientists noted that the climate crisis resulted in unforeseen and extremely heavy rainfall.
Most of the affected states are in the south-eastern and central regions, where hundreds of settlements have been cut off by water from access to food, clean water and fuel.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency said the country should prepare for more floods.
In Australia, heavy rains in October 2022 caused 16 rivers in New South Wales and Victoria to burst their banks. Thousands of people were evacuated when floodwaters flooded the western suburbs of Melbourne.
People in some parts of Australia are bracing for the worst flooding in 150 years.
The floods have also affected the country’s wildlife, affecting kangaroos, ostriches, echidnas and other native fauna.
Cover photo: E4C / iStock
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