Amidst the increase in the number and severity of weather-related natural disasters, there is a silver lining – a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has found that while the number of disasters has increased fivefold over the last 50 years, the number of deaths associated with these disasters has dropped by a factor of two thirds.
No one action can be pointed to as the cause for improvement. Rather, it’s the work of policymakers, engineers, scientists, planners and others who have helped put in place the various things that have helped improved resilience and save lives. Items such as better prediction methods, that have allowed for improved tracking of storms, hurricanes, or typhoons, or early warning systems that can broadcast advance alerts to those in potentially affected areas have helped greatly with preparations or evacuations. Similarly, improved building standards have helped people weather these disasters in place, and disaster recovery plans have helped to reduce deaths after extreme weather events have passed through.
There’s still work to be done, with the WMO and UN launching a program to ensure everyone on Earth is in range of a disaster early warning system within the next five years. And researchers and policymakers remain concerned that, as extreme weather events become more common, we may see the trend of decreasing deaths reversed, as systems become overtaxed and fail with more frequency.
Source:
https://www.vox.com/23150467/natural-disaster-climate-change-early-warning-hurricane-wildfire
https://www.tpr.org/2022-07-17/as-weather-disasters-increase-deaths-from-them-have-actually-fallen
