14 October,2020 07:48 AM IST | Geneva | Agencies
Homes are engulfed in flames in California during the LNU Lightning Complex fire on August 19
In the wake of heat waves, global warming, forest fires, storms, droughts and a rising number of hurricanes, the UN's World Meteorological Agency (WMA) is warning that the number of people who need international humanitarian help could rise 50 per cent by 2030 compared to the 108 million who needed it in 2018.
In a report on Tuesday, the WMA says more disasters attributed to weather are taking place each year. It said over 11,000 disasters have been attributed to weather, climate and phenomena like tsunamis that are related to water over the past 50 years, causing 2 million deaths and racking up $3.6 trillion worth of economic costs.
A charred swing set and car are seen after the passage of the Santiam Fire in Gates, Oregon, on September 10. Pics/AFP
"We're wilfully destructive. That's the only conclusion one can come to," Reuters quoted Mami Mizutori, the UN Secretary-General's special representative for disaster risk deduction, as saying. "COVID is latest proof that political and business leaders are yet to tune into the world around them."
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"It is baffling that we willingly and knowingly continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction, despite the science and proof that we are turning our only home into an uninhabitable hell for millions of people," Mizutori and Debarati Guha-Sapir of Belgium's Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters said.
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