With parts of America having spent 2021 being pounded by unstoppable rain, burned by endless fires, flooded by enormous storms, or scorched by repeated heat waves, more and more people are finding themselves at risk from natural disasters. Based on an analysis from The Washington Post, more than 40% of Americans find themselves living in a county that was hit by at least one climate-related extreme weather event in 2021, and over 80% were in an area that was subject to at least one heatwave. The cost of this all was at least 656 lives, and $104 billion in damages.
Questions remain about what America can do to reduce the harm of future events, through actions to build resilience, or to reduce the conditions that underlie the growth in climate-related natural disasters.
“To lose whole neighborhoods is just so very sad and devastating and unexpected,” says Louisville, CO mayor Ashley Stolzmann, whose town was recently badly hit by a the Marshall Fire. “When I lay awake the first night, not able to sleep from the fire, when I was evacuated from my house, the first thing I thought of is: I need everyone to reduce their carbon emissions.”
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/05/climate-disasters-2021-fires/
