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Climate disasters, U.N. certifies 2 million victims in last 50 years
Data collected by the World Meteorological Organisation, which is part of the United Nations, on the direct effects of climate change over the last 50 years, from 1970 to 2021, have been released in recent days.
The data collected are truly frightening, and speak of more than 12,000 natural disasters specifically due to climate change, with more than 2 million ascertained victims and an economic damage that has been calculated, over the five decades, at 4300 billion dollars.
Island states and developing countries are most affected, and the figure could have been even worse had it not been for the help of early warnings, which still fail to cover a large part of the world's population.
Climate disasters, U.N. certifies 2 million victims in last 50 years
Data collected by the World Meteorological Organisation (Wmo), which is part of the United Nations (UN), on the direct effects of climate change over the last 50 years, from 1970 to 2021, have been released in recent days. The data collected are truly frightening, and speak of more than 12,000 natural disasters specifically due to climate change, with more than 2 million ascertained victims and an economic damage that has been calculated, over the five decades, at USD 4300 billion.
Data updated for the past two years
The Wmo has finally updated the 'Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses due to Extreme Weather, Climate and Water Conditions', which was still stuck in 2021. This will then be presented at the opening of the quadrennial World Meteorological Congress, which should also provide more tools to combat and prevent disasters and save even more lives.
The data for 2020 and 2021
In this update, the casualties recorded for 2020 and 2021, which total 22,608, are reported, and are illustrative, Wmo reports, 'of a further decrease in mortality compared to the annual average of the previous decade. Economic losses, on the other hand, have increased, most of which are attributed to the storm category'.
The early warning
Over the past 50 years, national organisations have made significant efforts to work on the prevention of natural disasters due to climate change. In this regard, an early warning system has been put in place, which has significantly reduced the rate of loss of life. Although this system is not yet available to all countries, the UN aims to make it global by 2027.
What is early warning
As the World Meteorological Organisation explains in detail, the early warning system is 'a proven and effective climate adaptation measure that saves lives and provides at least a tenfold return on investment'. At the moment, however, it is only available to half of the UN countries. Moreover, there is very low coverage in small island developing states (particularly in the Caribbean) and in the so-called Least Developed Countries (most in Africa and Asia).
What is Wmo
The Congress is the highest decision-making body of the Wmo, which brings together 191 countries and the highest representatives of UN agencies, development banks, governments and national meteorological and hydrological services responsible for issuing early warnings, which is one of the strategic priorities the body aims to endorse.
Concern over rising temperature
Already in the past few days, the Wmo had come to the forefront with its concerns about the rise in global temperatures, and the likely failure of the world's temperature containment efforts. In fact, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, there is a 66% chance that the temperature will exceed 1.5°C in the period between 2023 and 2027. And there is a 98% chance that at least one of the next five years, or the entire five-year period, will be the hottest on record.
Nature
22/09/2023
Climate change is presenting us with greater and different challenges than ever before. In fact, the lack of rainfall and snowfall is pushing the world towards water shortages. Of course, we are not only talking about drinking water, which is used to quench our thirst, but also the water needed for energy plants and agriculture.
Some of our behaviors in fact, still linked to the old habits of abundance of our parents, are totally detrimental to the environment, as well as useless for practical purposes. Of course, there is a lack of proper environmental culture in schools in the first place, and that is where we step in.
In this little guide, we want to give you 10 quick tips on how to save water in everyday life.
science
20/09/2023
It often happens, especially during adolescence, that one realizes that one is more gifted in languages than in mathematics, or vice versa. Or that one's thought processes are different from those of a friend or classmate. This aspect depends not only on personal interests, but also on the way our brains work.
In fact, the way to process information is different from person to person, but it can be grouped into some predefined categories. Some are more predisposed to creative work, others to relationships with other people, and still others can hear and understand music in a way unthinkable for others.
According to a study carried out since the 1980s by the American psychologist Howard Gardner, we have as many as nine different types of intelligence, to which the tenth would be added. These intelligences could also theoretically be linked to certain types of jobs.
Art galleries private collections
19/09/2023
Food has undoubtedly been of paramount importance in the development of our modern civilization. Food in particular made our bodies stronger and helped extend the average lifespan of early humans by many decades.
The ability to create particular foods and dishes, in short, to process food, is still valued today, and, interestingly, many of the things that are the basis of our meals go back to ideas far into the past. Bread, wine, beer, oil, cheese, so many things go back even thousands of years.
In this short article, we will take you along with us to discover the origins of our most common foods.
Tablet computers and tech gadgets
science
17/09/2023
The Six Degrees of Separation Theory, which assumes that each person can be connected to any other in the world through a chain of knowledge with no more than five intermediaries, is one of the most popular and suggestive social theories ever created, and may still be valid today in the age of social networking.
It was in the mid-1960s when a Harvard professor sent a letter to an unknown farmer in Nebraska, hoping that, through a completely random network of contacts, the letter would reach its true recipient in Boston.
Today, a study co-ordinated by the Institute of Complex Systems of the National Research Council in Florence (CNR-Isc) - signed by researchers from Spain, Israel, Russia, Slovenia and Chile - has shown that connections on social networks resemble those found by Milgram in the 1960s.
Art galleries private collections