Disasters across the Globe are Interconnected: UN Report

May - June 2022

Natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, and droughts have been tearing across the globe at an unprecedented rate. The United Nations University, the academic and research arm of the United Nations, led a study that dived into ten such recent calamities that occurred in 2020 and 2021. The study revealed that, despite taking place at distant geographical locations, these seemingly unconnected disasters do, in fact, have a common link.

Upon untangling the complex web that wove these disasters together, researchers found one common thread—human activity and behaviour. The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had already chalked up the cause of global heating to human influence. But this new report builds on the IPCC report and highlights the linkages between human activity and various disasters such as the Amazon fires, Cyclone Amphan, COVID-19 pandemic, bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and so on.

While most solutions necessitate international, national, or regional actions, the UN report highlights that individual actions or inactions are equally important. As this report emphasised upon, disasters are connected to human behaviour. So, the ball is in our court! If we make consistent, conscious decisions that promote solutions and avoid creating new risks, we can change agents and a part of the solution.

Source: weather.com

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