"Many of 2023's events are consistent with projected future changes...
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Disaster & Management
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El Niño to trigger drought insurance payouts in four southern African states
El Nino, which brings dry and hot weather to Southern Africa, has...
Dubai faces heavy disruption as flooding worsens
The heavy rains across the desert nation came after cloud seeding....
Typhoon Triggers Vietnam Landslides; 16 Dead
Meanwhile,the Philippines is bracing for a new storm that will hit the Southeast Asian nation this weekend, days after Typhoon Molave left at least 16 people dead and thousands in evacuation sites.
Swiss Re joins global coalition to better predict & prevent outbreak and pandemics, to harness data and analytics
The Trinity Challenge aims to develop ideas and tools for tackling the three stages of infectious disease emergencies – identification, response and recovery.
By becoming a member of The Trinity Challenge, Swiss Re is joining leaders across the academic, non-profit and private sectors including Google, Microsoft and Facebook, GlaxoSmithKline, McKinsey & Company, the Gates Foundation, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.
Gadkari suggests formation of state water grid in Maharashtra to overcome flood crisis
The floods create and trigger serious problems in different parts of the state and there is an urgent need to chalk out a plan to manage this natural disaster that becomes grave because of other man made factors,” a statement from the Minister’s office said.
Hurricane Delta to cost insurers between $2bn – $3.5bn:RMS
“The overlapping nature of Delta and Laura will create a complicated claims management and loss attribution process for the industry. Using an innovative combination of high-resolution aerial imagery and machine-learning techniques, the modeling teams at RMS assessed the competing impacts of Hurricane Laura on Hurricane Delta losses. We determined that more than half of the impacted postal codes were also impacted by Laura, representing more than 90% of loss in this event. While Delta caused higher than expected damage to many structures due to pre-existing damage from Laura, reduced overall exposure-at-risk in the overlapping region after Laura means losses attributed to Delta will end up being lower than if Laura had never happened,” said Jeff Waters, senior product manager, RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models.
Natural disasters surge in past 20 years, likely to continue to wreak havoc: U.N.
China (577) and the United States (467) recorded the highest number of disaster events from 2000 to 2019, followed by India (321), the Philippines (304) and Indonesia (278), the U.N. said in a report issued the day before the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Eight of the top 10 countries are in Asia.
Global leaders at UN meet: If virus does not kill us, climate change will
With Siberia seeing its warmest temperature on record this year and enormous chunks of ice caps in Greenland and Canada sliding into the sea, countries are acutely aware there’s no vaccine for global warming.
“We are already seeing a version of environmental Armageddon,” Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said, citing wildfires in the western US and noting that the Greenland ice chunk was larger than a number of island nations.
Global COVID-19 death toll could hit 2 million before vaccine in wide use, WHO says
The number of deaths about nine months since the novel coronavirus was discovered in China is nearing 1 million.
“We are not out of the woods anywhere, we are not out of the woods in Africa,” said Ryan.
He said young people should not be blamed for a recent increase in infections despite growing concerns that they are driving its spread after restrictions and lockdowns were eased around the world.
The WHO is continuing talks with China about its possible involvement in the COVAX financing scheme designed to guarantee fast and equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines, a week after the deadline for committing passed.
Nearly seven crore tests conducted in India for detection of COVID-19
“Evidence has revealed that higher numbers of testing subsequently leads to lowered positivity rate. States that are testing the highest numbers are also reporting a gradual decline in the positivity rate,” the ministry said.
Steady rise in heavy rainfall events during 3 last years: Harsh Vardhan
Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan said studies show that the frequency of severe cyclones in the Arabian Sea has increased in recent years.
The data shows that there is a steady increase in the number of heavy rainfall events during the last three years, Vardhan said.
The frequency of cyclones too has seen a rise, he noted.
A fifth of countries worldwide at risk from ecosystem collapse as biodiversity declines, reveals pioneering Swiss Re index
39 countries have ecosystems in a fragile state on more than a
third of their land – Malta, Israel, Cyprus, Bahrain and Kazakhstan
have the lowest Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (BES) ranking
• 55% of global GDP depends on high-functioning BES
• Major economies in Southeast Asia, Europe and the US exposed to
BES decline
Christian Mumenthaler, Swiss Re’s Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “There is a clear need to assess the state of ecosystems so that the global community can minimise further negative impact on economies across the world. This important piece of work provides a data-driven foundation for understanding the economic risks of deteriorating biodiversity and ecosystems. In turn, we can inform governmental decision-making to help improve ecosystem restoration and preservation. We can also support corporations and investors as they fortify themselves against environmental shocks. Armed with this information, we can also ensure the provision of stronger sustainable insurance services.“