WB State Inter Agency Group on Disaster Management. Cyclone Amphan made landfall in eastern India on Wednesday afternoon
local time.
Disasters such as cyclones, floods, and droughts are more connected than we might think, and human activity is the
common thread, a UN report released on Wednesday reveals.
The study from the UN University, the academic and research arm of the UN, looks at 10 different disasters that occurred
in 2020 and 2021, and finds that, even though they occurred in very different locations and do not initially appear to
have much in common, they are, in fact, interconnected.A consequence of human influence
The study builds on the ground-breaking Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment released on 9 August, and based on improved data on historic heating, which showed that human influence has warmed the
climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years. António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General
described the IPCC assessment as a “code red for humanity”.
Over the 2020-2021 period covered by the UN University, several record-breaking disasters took place, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a cold wave which crippled the US state of Texas, wildfires which destroyed almost 5 million acres of Amazon
rainforest, and 9 heavy storms in Viet Nam - in the span of only 7 weeks.Arctic-Texas linkUnsplash/Matthew T. Rader
Extreme weather in Texas has brought unseasonal snow storms resulting in widespread electricity blackouts across the US
state.
Whilst these disasters occurred thousands of miles apart, the study shows how they are related to one another, and can
have consequences for people living in distant places.
An example of this is the recent heatwave in the Arctic and cold wave in Texas. In 2020, the Arctic experienced
unusually high air temperatures, and the second-lowest amount of sea ice cover on record.
This warm air destabilized the polar vortex, a spinning mass of cold air above the North Pole, allowing colder air to
move southward into North America, contributing to the sub-zero temperatures in Texas, during which the power grid froze
up, and 210 people died.COVID and the CycloneUnited Nations | The refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar are the world’s largest, hosting 860 thousand Rohingya from Myanmar
Another example of the connections between disasters included in the study and the pandemic, is Cyclone Amphan, which
struck the border region of India and Bangladesh.
In an area where almost 50 per cent of the population is living under the poverty line, the COVID-19 pandemic and
subsequent lockdowns left many people without any way to make a living, including migrant workers who were forced to
return to their home areas and were housed in cyclone shelters while under quarantine.
When the region was hit by Cyclone Amphan, many people, concerned over social distancing, hygiene and privacy, avoided
the shelters and decided to weather the storm in unsecure locations. In the aftermath, there was a spike in COVID-19
cases, compounding the 100 fatalities directly caused by Amphan, which also caused damage in excess of 13 billion USD
and displaced 4.9 million people.Root causes© UNICEF/Viet Hung | Mr Nam holds Phuc and calms him after Phuc knew that he could not find his favorite tree any more
The new report identifies three root causes that affected most of the events in the analysis: human-induced greenhouse
gas emissions, insufficient disaster risk management, and undervaluing environmental costs and benefits in
decision-making.
The first of these, human induced greenhouse gas emissions, is identified as one of the reasons why Texas experienced
freezing temperatures, but these emissions also contribute to the formation of super cyclones such as Cyclone Amphan, on
the other side of the world.
Insufficient disaster risk management, notes the study, was one of the reasons why Texas experienced such high losses of
life and excessive infrastructure damage during the cold snap, and also contributed to the high losses caused by the
Central Viet Nam floods.
The report also shows how the record rate of deforestation in the Amazon is linked to the high global demand for meat:
this demand has led to an increase in the need for soy, which is used as animal feed for poultry. As a result, tracts of
forest are being cut down.
“What we can learn from this report is that disasters we see happening around the world are much more interconnected
than we may realize, and they are also connected to individual behaviour”, says one of the report’s authors, UNU
scientist Jack O’Connor. “Our actions have consequences, for all of us,” Solutions also linked
However, Mr. O’Connor is adamant that, just as the problems are interlinked, so are the solutions.
The report shows that cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions can positively affect the outcome of many different types
of disasters, prevent a further increase in the frequency and severity of hazards, and protect biodiversity and
ecosystems.Interconnected disastersInterconnected Disaster Risks 2020/2021, is released by the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and
Human Security (UNU-EHS), which conducts research on risks and adaptation related to environmental hazards and global change.The institute’s research promotes policies and programmes to reduce these risks, taking into account the interplay
between environmental and societal factors.Research areas include climate change adaptation by incorporating insurance-related approaches, environmentally-induced
migration and social vulnerability, ecosystem-based solutions to adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and models and
tools to analyse vulnerability and risks linked to natural hazards.