Leader

NST Leader: Earth in peril

WE are wilfully destructive. That is the verdict of Mami Mizutori, the head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), on how Earth-unfriendly we have become. In the last 20 years, climate change has caused 7,348 major disasters, claiming 1.23 million lives.

Some 4.2 billion people — more than half the world's population — were harmed in more ways than one. Cost to the global economy? Close to US$3 trillion. There is more bad news.

The sad statistics are sharp increases from the decade that was. According to UNDRR, between 1980 and 1999, 4,212 disasters were linked to natural hazards worldwide, claiming approximately 1.19 million lives, affecting 3.25 billion people and resulting in approximately US$1.63 trillion in economic losses.

This is not a new warning. UNDRR, and Mizutori in particular, have been warning the world through media reports and op-eds on the shape of things to come if we continue with our errant ways. Last year, in an interview with The Guardian, Mizutori said there was a climate change-related disaster every week.

Yet, the world went on with its business-as-usual mode. Wilfully destructive is a fair and just verdict passed on a world that has gone wild.

While the rich in developed countries are reaping instant gratification of a climate-disturbed world, the poor in less-developed countries are facing the brunt.

Of the top 10 countries ranked in terms of disaster events by UNDRR, eight were in Asia. Developed nations were not spared. The United States, with 467 disasters, ranked only second to China's 577.

How do we stop being wilfully destructive? There are two things that need to be done at the global level. One is to stop doing things that cause climate change.

Two is adapting to climate crisis. It is here that the world is failing itself. In the language of Mizutori, the world needs to develop good disaster governance, and national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction.

And it doesn't require much investment compared with what is spent every year on curing disasters, which the World Bank estimates to be US$520 billion a year.

Her estimate is US$2.7 trillion for 20 years. "This is not a lot of money," she told The Guardian last year. "Resilience needs to become a commodity that people will pay for." We agree.

Now that we know most of the disasters are related to climate change, it makes sense to spend a couple of trillions on infrastructure to prevent the flow of disasters rather than billions every year curing one disaster after another.

In a Q&A with UNDRR, Mizutori puts it thus: "If we cannot mitigate, if we cannot adapt to climate change, then we cannot stop the flow of disasters." We have to agree again. The Earth is hotter than it was during the days of the Industrial Revolution.

It is certainly warmer now than it was when the New Straits Times first went into print 175 years ago. The consensus is the Earth is 1.0°C warmer. Soon it will heat up to the Paris accord level of 1.5°C if we do not mend our ways. Climate change brings with it climate crisis.

There is enough science to link one to the other. Both need to be tackled urgently. An either approach is a path to more disasters.

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