- Climate change and hot economic development are the key causes of many disasters...
- Climate change and hot economic development are the main causes of many disasters causing serious damage to people.
Swiss Reinsurance company Swiss Re on December 18 released a report showing that the total economic loss caused by natural and industrial disasters in the world in 2015 was 85 billion USD, in that damage due to natural disasters accounted for 74 billion USD.
Year of harsh nature
According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2015 is considered the hottest year on record with heat waves that have caused more than 5,000 deaths. The lack of rain causes droughts and wildfires to also cause significant damage around the world. In India and Pakistan alone, more than 3,000 people have died when temperatures soar above 48 degrees Celsius.
In early February, a cold storm in the US cost insurance companies a large amount of money, estimated at $2.7 billion. In Nepal, the earthquake in April killed more than 9,000 people, destroyed more than 500,000 homes, about 8,000 schools and caused billions of dollars in damage to an economy that depends mainly on tourism. this calendar.
According to a Swiss Re report, at least 26,000 people have died in disasters this year, including migrants who perished on their way to Europe. This is more than double the 2014 death toll of about 11,000.
Waste soil from the industrial park, which was illegally stored and overloaded, turned into mud and overflowed after heavy rain caused a terrible landslide disaster on December 20.
Effects of climate change
According to another United Nations report released in November, the frequency of natural disasters is increasing. There have been an average of 335 natural disasters per year over the past two decades, an increase of 14% from the previous decade and nearly double the number recorded between 1985 and 1994.
The report adds that there is strong evidence that a warming climate has produced more frequent and severe heat waves, producing more rain, and exacerbating floods and droughts.
According to the United Nations Agency for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), in the past 20 years, natural disasters have claimed the lives of more than 600,000 people and caused 4.1 billion injuries. injured, become homeless or in need of emergency assistance, and cause trillions of dollars in economic damage.
Journalist Camille Boudin also answered on Radio France 3 that in France alone, from now to 2040, insurers will have to pay double the amount of damage caused by natural disasters, up to hundreds of billions of dollars. .
The overall damage caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and tornadoes to the world economy is estimated at 250-300 billion USD/year. And to compensate for the damage caused by natural disasters, countries need a reserve of up to 314 billion USD/year.
Threat from industrial disaster
On December 20, a serious landslide occurred in an industrial park in Quang Minh district, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, southern this country. As of 4 p.m. on December 21, Xinhua reported that more than 90 people were still missing. More than 30 buildings were buried, 400 meters of natural gas pipeline belonging to the West to East gas pipeline of China's largest oil and gas production company exploded.
In early December, a dam burst containing 64 million m3 of toxic waste in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, killing 60 people and missing. In addition to a commitment to compensate $280 million for causing the dam failure, the mining company, a joint venture between BHP Billiton of Great Britain and Australia and Brazil (Samaco), was fined $30 million.
The most serious this year was the explosion of a chemical warehouse in Tianjin, northeast China, on August 12, killing 161 people. Insurance companies had to pay more than 2 billion USD for damage, but the calculation of the damage in this disaster and the consequences in all aspects has not stopped.
Consequences of hot development
According to AFP, citing the Ministry of Land and Resources of China, the cause of the recent landslide disaster in Shenzhen was because waste soil from the industrial park was illegally stored and overloaded in 100-meter-high storage tanks. turned into mud and spilled out after heavy rain on the morning of December 20.
Reuters quoted the Shenzhen Evening Post newspaper of the Shenzhen government as saying that since October last year, a local official has warned about unsafe mud dumps because the city is building many new buildings and systems. The subway system generates a lot of sludge.
“We have not yet been able to obtain detailed reports after assessing the damage caused by the spill of millions of harmful emissions into the Rico Doce River basin, as well as the environmental restoration process throughout the river basin. area. I think it takes nearly billions of dollars and decades to deal with its consequences," Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira also said when the dam broke in Minas Gerais.
After the explosion in Tianjin, there were also comments criticizing the city government for following the hot development index (the target of GDP growth of 9.4% for 2015), in which the Tan Hai area (where the disaster happened). disaster) is a key contributor to 55% of the city's GDP, so it has closed its eyes, allowing private companies to set up warehouses and store dangerous goods in ordinary warehouses located near residential areas and highways. speed.
Prior to that, shortly after a severe landslide in northwestern China in August 2010, some observers feared that natural disasters were exacerbated by excessive efforts to promote natural disasters. accelerated economic growth in the less developed regions of China.
A 2006 study by scholars from Lanzhou University in the capital of Gansu province found that 50 years of human activities included farming, logging, mining, road construction, and dam construction. hydroelectricity... means that "instabilities in slopes, avalanches, landslides, mudflows are becoming more and more frequent".
Balance between development and environmental protection
Swiss Re chief economist Kurt Karl said that 2015 was a year of too many events, natural disasters claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, but most were not paid for because they did not buy insurance.
“The overall economic impact of these disasters has been extremely heavy in the affected areas. Often these areas are disadvantaged and have low access to insurance,” said economist Kurt Karl.
Natural disasters have become a global problem. And although the damage caused by natural disasters still accounts for the majority, it cannot be denied that industrial accidents are becoming more and more serious and leaving consequences that are extremely difficult to overcome.
Currently, many countries still neglect disaster prevention, resulting in people, infrastructure and economies being vulnerable to disasters. Investing in disaster risk reduction, while expensive, can be highly effective, scientists say. With a $6 billion annual investment in disaster mitigation measures, the world could avoid up to $360 billion in losses over the next 15 years.
It can be said that it is time for policy makers as well as the international community to consider the balance between economic development goals and environmental protection and combating climate change. And the "war" to prevent natural disasters requires the world to take more active and substantive steps.
