Daily Times

We welcomed 2020 with cheers, parties and fireworks and being around our loved ones, but looking back at 2019 is very saddening. The year 2019 could be marked as one of the gloomiest years in human history in terms of worst climate disasters. Rapid changes in climate caused severe, irreversible damages to our permanent home: the Earth. Climate change caused disasters such as wildfires, heatwaves, storms, draughts, loss of Arctic ice, intense rainfalls, and floods. Some of the deadliest are listed below.

Wildfires:

Australia is still in headlines due to the devastatingwildfires burning even now throughout almost the entire continent. Started somewhere in August, the fires became noticeable in September. New South Wales and Victoria are the most affected states, and Melbourne and Sydney are partially affected. Flames reportedly reaching up to a height of 230 metres have damaged thousands of buildings. To date, around 24 people are died, and more than 2,000 homes are completely destroyed. An estimated of seven million hectares of land has burned, more than four million hectares in New South Wales alone. Millions of people have been evacuated to safe areas.About 1.25 billion birds, mammals and reptiles were burnt to death. Nearly 800 koalas-one-third of koala population is in NSW-are dead.

Almost 15,000 firefighters are battling blazes, tirelessly working since the last several months. Many other countries, including the USA, have sent firefighting assistance to Australia.

Space research agencies, spending billions of dollars to find life on other planets, are averse to use technology to save the Earth

Thick smoke spread across hundreds of miles, affecting the neighbouring countries. Snow near the Franz Josef Glacier, in the west of Tai Potini National Park, New Zealand, has reportedly turned into caramelised colour. The estimated cost of the total damage could be evaluated once the fires are put off, probably after a decent amount of rain, or when dry, hot summer is over, which is still two more months away.

Amazon Rainforest:

Known as the lungs of the earth,and responsible for producing six percent of the world’s oxygen, Amazon rainforest suffered one of the worst fires of its history. Fires in Amazon during the hot, dry season is a repetitive phenomenon. One of the main reasons of fires in the area is ‘slash and burn’, a conventional method used to clear the land for agricultural purposes by local farmers. The 2019 wildfires turned troublesome when NASA’s AIRS published a map showing a rapid increase in carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the air above and around Amazon resulting from the wildfires.

According to media reports, some 40,000 fires were recorded. A total of 906,000 hectares (2,240,000 acres) were burned completely. The number and size of active fires was actually three times higher than that of 2018, and highest since 2010. The intense smoke in the air made population in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru suffer from respiratory and lungs related diseases. BrazilianPresident Jai Balsonaro and Bolivian President Evo Morals were accused for the occurrence as their pro-business policies thatare considered to be ‘anti-environment’ receive heavy criticism.

Bushfires in California occur almost every year in the summer season, amid hot, dry weather of spring and late summer. August and September of 2019 passed quite tranquilly, and no major fire was reported. It was late October when Kincade Fire became noticeably strong. Many other major fires including the Maria Fire, the Hillside Fire, Jurupa Valley Fire, Easy Fire, Tick Fire, Getty Fire, Old Water Fire, and Saddle Ridge Fire exacerbated the destruction.

Media reports claimed that a total of 7,860 fires burned more than 105,147 hectares (259,823 acres) of forest, costing USD 163 million (spent on suppression of fire). Five casualties were recorded, and 22 people were injured. Thousands of people were told to leave the area. California Governor Gewin Newson publicly criticised power companies-PacificGas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric-andblamed them for possibly sparking the fires, and later cutting the power supply off for hundreds of thousands of people for several days.

Heatwaves:

Summer of 2019 is listed as one of the hottest summers in Europe, affecting southwestern to Central Europe. The month of June was evidenced as one of the hottest Junes ever recorded in Europe. Highpressures and hot winds from the Sahara Desert caused a blistering heatwave in the region. France was the most affected country, facing 113-degree Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius), first time ever in French history. The heatwave killed15 people in Europe.

The early June brought an intense heatwave in Northern India. Some regions experienced scorching temperatures, reaching up to 45 degrees Celsius, for a consecutive three long weeks. Bihar was the most affected state where 186 people died. Hundreds were admitted to hospitals due to heatstroke. Authorities had to impose curfew-like restrictions, forbidding citizens to remain outside during extreme heat hours (11am-4pm). Less than required rainfall during pre-monsoon and a delayed monsoon season made the heat more intolerable.

Another immense heatwave grappled Japan for weeks. In July, the sizzling temperature was recorded 105-degree Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius). According to Japanese media reports, more than 100 people died, and 34,347 were admitted to hospitals, mostly aged 65 or more, due to heat related diseases. Tokyo, Kumagaya, Osaka and Fukushima were the most affected cities. The heatwave was classified as a ‘natural disaster’ in Japan.

Typhoons, cyclones and hurricanes:

A tropical depression near the east coast of Mozambique created a cyclone, which turned into one of the worst tropical cyclones on record to hit Africa and southern hemisphere. Originated on March 4, the Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique on the same day. For the next few days, the cyclone remained low in the Mozambique channel. On March 14, the cyclone re-originated and became very strong. The cyclone created strong winds, reaching up to a speed of 125 mph (205 km/h) triggered heavy flooding in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Madagascar. More than 1,300 people were dead, hundreds were reported missing, and another three million people were directly affected by the cyclone. The destructioncostapproximately USD 2.2 billion.

Lekima was another strong typhoon to hit China and Taiwan, affecting Japan and Philippine too. Formed by a tropical depression off the east coast of Philippines somewhere around July 30, the typhoon became strongest and hit China on August 8. Lekima was the fourth typhoon of the seasonbut became strongest to hit China in the last five years. With a wind speed of up to 120 mph(193km/h), Lekima was a Catagory-4 typhoon. It brought rainfall that further caused severe floods and landslide in more than seven provinces including Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangsu. At least 72 people were dead, hundreds went missing and many more hundreds were left homeless. Millions had to evacuate the area.

The typhoon wrecked around 34,000 houses, damaged 173,000 hectares of crops, and brought major damage to several roads and bridges. The situation prompted the Chinese government to issue a ‘red typhoon alert’, the highest that Beijing uses for intense natural disasters. The direct economic loss was estimated around USD 2.1 billion.

Hurricane Dorian:

Dorian ranked as one of the most devastating hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic Ocean in terms of one-minute sustained winds. Formed between August 24-26, Dorian struck the Abaco Island on September 1. Moving forward with the same intensity, the typhoon struck the Grand Bahamas on September 2. Ranked as one of the deadliest typhoons in Bahamian history, Dorian caused catastrophic destruction. Majority of the structure was flattened or swept to the sea. More than 80 people were reported as dead, while another 70,000 were left homeless.

Dorian, later turned into a category-II hurricane, further affected Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, eastern United States (Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia), eastern Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island), southern Greenland, and Iceland. The estimated total cost of damage was around 4.68 billion, USD 3.4 billion in Bahamas alone.

An extraordinary destructive typhoon named ‘Hagibis’ struck southwestern Japan on September 13. The strongest typhoon in decades to hit mainland Japan,Hagibis proved to be one of the largest typhoons with a peak diameter of 925 nautical miles. High-speed winds whipped Tokyo and Tokyo Bay, by ushering more than three feet of rain in just 24 hours. More than 20 rivers burst flooding, further causing landfall that killed at least 86; more than eight million people were put on evacuation order and millions more were further strongly advised to evacuate.

Several parts of the country were positioned under ‘the most severe weather’ warning when Higibis made landfall. Amidst severe weather conditions, the parade celebrating the ascension of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito was postponed until November. The estimated cost of destruction was around USD15 billion, ranking the typhoon as ‘costliest pacific typhoon in recorded history’.

Floods:

Iran was tattered by the floods brought by intense rainfall in the middle of March. Flood that washed entire villages destroyed countless homes and buildings in just a matter of minutes; it was the deadliest in more than 15 years. Floods affected 26 of the 31 provinces of Iran. Around 725 bridges were completely destroyed, more than 14,000 kilometres of roads were damaged, and around 4,400 villages were affected. Some USD 2.2-2.6 billion was the estimated cost of total damage.

Heavy monsoon rainfall (late June-early July) hit Nepal hard. At least 70 people were reported dead, according to Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs. More than 30 were reported missing, whereas 2,500 were successfully rescued. The flooding directly impacted around two million people. Displaced people had to take shelter in schools and other public buildings. Other than Nepal, rainfall impacted north-east Indian states and several other parts of South Asia.

In late July, heavy monsoon rainfall that lasted up to August, almost drowned India. The most intense rainfall in 25 yearswhacked more than 13 states, with Karnatka and Maharashtra the most severely affected. An estimated 2.5 million people suffered the flood. About a million people were displaced, around 150 people lost their lives, 50 went missing, and 738 were injured. An estimated 190,000 houses were completely destroyed; another 250,000 houses were partially damaged. Some 1,414 million hectares of crops were destroyed, and 20,000 animals were lost.

The lagoon city of Italy almost drowned when a combination of meteorological storm and strong Sirocco winds blowing north-eastwards brought high tides in the Adriatic Sea. Water reached the level of 1.87meters (six feet), which is recorded after 53 years, last time in 1966. Morethan 80 percent of the city was flooded. The historic St Mark’s basilica,which is located at the lowest part of the city, was severely damaged.The sturdy situation prompted the mayor of Venice to declare a ‘stateof emergency’. The drastic flood cost hundreds of millions ofEuros and possibly an irreversible damage to the city of dreams.

The aftermath:

Climate change is a serious issue that needs to be addressedimmediately. Every climate related disaster is a warning to theclimate change deniers. Mega multinational companies are so busy capitalisingthe world that they don’t seem to take much care of climate-relatedissues. Our world is our home, and there is no Planet-B. Spaceresearch agencies, spending billions of dollars to findlife on other planets, are averse to use technology to save the Earth.

Each passing day, month, and year is making it impossible to reverseclimate change. There’s a serious need to take adequate steps to stopthe rapid change in climate, or otherwise,the coming years won’t be muchdifferent than the past year when we already have lost millions ofhectares of forest and many glaciers. Draughts, fires, heatwaves, andunexpected heavy rains bringing floods are more likely to make frequent appearances.

The writer is a freelance researcher and an investigative journalist