Weathering the Future: Can we Survive the Storms?
In January, around fourteen wildfires took place in Los Angeles and San Diego, killing at least twenty nine people, forcing more than two hundred thousand people to evacuate, destroying more than eighteen thousand homes and structures, and burning more than fifty-seven thousand acres of land.
Two months later, Tropical Cyclone Jude took place in Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar, impacting over 375,214 people, destroying or damaging over 81,149 houses, including health facilities, schools, water systems, and kilometers of electricity.
A few days later, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake occurred in Myanmar, the epicenter located about 9.9 miles outside Sagaing, at a depth of six miles, the death toll surpassing 3,600 people, leading to over 5,000 injuries, with millions people in need of assistance at the time of the incident.
These extreme weather events illustrate some of the consequences of Earth exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level last year, with signs pointing to more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and heavy precipitation and flooding going forwards.
Last year, torrential rains brought major floods in China, Bangladesh, and Europe, with monthly precipitation records shattered more often than at the start of this century, backed by record heat and major disruptions in the global hydrological cycle.
This year, Earth recorded the second warmest April since record-keeping began, with an average temperature of 1.49 degrees Celsius above the 1860-1900 average, while January recorded a figure for the warmest on record, as global average surface air temperature hit more than 1.75 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level.
Earth’s temperature stands an 18 percent chance of becoming the warmest on record this year, 53 percent chance of becoming the second warmest on record, as well as 52 percent chance of hitting an average above 1.5 degrees Celsius.
These figures are signs that Earth might hit figures exceeding or close to 1.5 degrees Celsius this year, meaning a continuation of the storms, floods, earthquakes, and other extreme weather events of the past few years.
Forty percent of the world's population suffers from water scarcity, and as many as 700 million people are at the danger of displacement due to drought five years from now, while precipitation fell in 2023 to their lowest level in half a century, standing at 1.82 inches below the annual average recorded across the previous century.
About 3.2 billion people suffered from floods from 1990 to 2022, with about 218,353 deaths recorded, more than $1.3 trillion lost in economic damages, while the event became the most common natural disaster on earth in 2023.
Forty hurricanes took place in 2024, with over 779,324 people dying from tropical cyclones in the last fifty years, while from 1990 to 2024, an average of 47 hurricanes are registered worldwide per year.
From the above, billions of people get affected by drought, floods, and hurricanes every year, and the extreme weather events increase with time, possibly becoming worse if Earth exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius, and dangerous when the figure hits two degrees Celsius.
To mitigate extreme weather events, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate resilience, cut down carbon footprint, and support climate resilient initiatives.
What to Eat
Vegan food from Madagascar, Credit, Easy Cheesy Vegetarian.