Category:

Disaster & Management

More at risk of losing homes as climate change outpaces response, Fiji warns

Mami Mizutori, who leads the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction said globally, there had been a notable reduction in the loss of life caused by extreme weather events like storms and floods, as governments stepped up efforts over the past five years to evacuate millions of people to safer places. But the number of people affected by disasters remained “chronically high”, with displacement one of the harshest consequences, pushing many into crowded city slums or to other countries where they do not always get a friendly reception.

Only about 100 countries have so far put formal strategies in place to cut the risk of disasters, she said. Such plans can include things like early warning systems, stronger building codes and a ban on construction in flood-prone areas.

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Above-average annual insured natural cat losses in 2020 despite multiple ‘near-misses’:Willis

In Asia, Tropical Cyclone Haishen caused under $1 billion of insured losses, well below those caused by similar storms during 2019’s cyclone season. The largest event of 2020 to hit Latin America and the Caribbean was hurricane Iota in November, with an estimated economic loss of about $1.3 billion, but a much lower insured loss.

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Two-thirds of world see ‘climate emergency’: UN survey

“Concern about the climate emergency is far more widespread than we knew before,” Stephen Fisher, a sociologist at Oxford who helped design the survey and process the data, told AFP in an interview.

“And the large majority of those who do recognise a climate emergency want urgent and comprehensive action.”

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Climate change drives $268 bn global damage from 2020 natural disasters with 64% uninsured:Aon report

“When Natural Disasters and a Pandemic Collide” global annual report explores “connected extremes”

Asia recorded $95 billion in economic damage from natural disasters in 2020. Just 9% was insured; which means the protection gap was 91% further highlighting protection gap vulnerabilities in 2020

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Biden launches ”100 days mask challenge”; makes COVID-19 test, quarantine mandatory for people entering US

The death toll will likely top 5,00,000 next month, he said, adding that the cases will continue to mount.
“Our national plan launches a full-scale wartime effort to address the supply shortages by ramping up production and protective equipment, syringes, needles, you name it. And when I say wartime, people look at me like wartime? Well, as I said last night, 4,00,000 Americans have died. That”s more than World War II… this is a wartime undertaking,” he said.

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