How much natural disasters have cost on Earth
COVID-19 has dominated the news agenda throughout 2022. We have all been attentive to the evolution of the pandemic, but also, millions of people have had to cope with extreme weather events that have hit the planet without regard.
The Extreme weather conditions have shaken the planet from end to end; from Australia to the United States through Africa, from the floods in China, India and Japan, to storms and hurricanes in Europe and all of America.
It seems that this year the pandemic and extreme weather have conspired an almost perfect revenge with huge losses of human lives, on a par with multimillion-dollar financial losses.
The economic bill of the pandemic will be seen! But this week a report was published through the foundation Christian aid to know… How much money has extreme weather cost us this year? And only the 10 events that have exceeded in value of losses with more than 1.5 Billion dollars are analyzed.
To put us in context, the report adds a chronological table of the most extreme events with estimated economic cost for each catastrophe:
| Date | Location | Impact | Estimated cost ($ US Billions) | People who have died | Number of displaced persons (when data are available) |
| January | Australia | Forest fires | 5 | 34 | 65 In thousands |
| January June | East africa | Swarms of locusts | 8.5 | ||
| February and october | Europe | Wind storms | 5.9 | 30 | |
| May | Bay of bengal | Cyclone Amphan | 13 | 128 | 4.9 In millions |
| May - November | USA, Central America, Caribbean | Hurricanes | 41 | 400+ | 200 In thousands |
| June - October | China | Floods | 32 | 278 | 3.7 In millions |
| June - October | India | Floods | 10 | 2,067 | 4 In millions |
| July | Japan | Floods | 8.5 | 82 | 3.6 In millions - evacuate advised |
| July September | Pakistan | Floods | 1.5 | 410 | 68 In thousands |
| July - November | West Coast of the United States | Fires | 20 | 42 | 500 In thousands - under evacuation order |
If we add the cost that caused the damages, the bill amounts to 121 Billion dollars. A good hole for the world economy.
Most of these estimates are based only on insured lossesyes, which means, that the true financial costs will likely be much highers. This without counting the "small climatic disasters".
Some of the disasters happened quickly, such as Cyclone Amphan, which hit the Bay of Bengal in May, causing losses of $ 13 billion in just a few days.
Other events unfolded over months, such as the floods in China and India, which cost an estimated $ 32 billion and $ 10 billion, respectively.
Although the report focuses on financial costs, which tend to be higher in richer countries given that they have more valuable properties, some extreme weather events also hit poorer countries, although the price was lower.
Six of the ten most expensive events took place in Asia, five of them associated with an unusually rainy monsoon. And in Africa, huge clouds of locusts devastated crops and vegetation in several countries, causing damage estimated at $ 8.5 billion.
In Europe, two cyclones, Ciara and Alex, had a combined cost of almost $ 6 billion. And the US suffered a record-breaking hurricane and fire season that totaled more than $ 60 billion in damage.
Some less populated places also suffered the consequences of global warming. In Siberia, a heat wave during the first half of the year set a record in the city of Verkhoyansk, with temperatures reaching 38 ° C.
A few months later, on the other side of the world, heat and drought caused fires in Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. Although there were no reports of human casualties from these events, the destruction of these areas has a major impact on biodiversity and the ability of planet Earth to respond to heat waves.
Some people may think that nature from time to time hits the planet with force … "it's normal!" Others may attribute extreme weather conditions to climate change, and still others simply. all this is very far from my house. But in reality, in recent years we have had a moving planet if we look at the graph of natural disasters …
As a note, we published an article about a free course on geographic analysis of natural risk that is still active in MOOC format.
Whatever your opinion, we have to prepare! We are moving on a roulette wheel. Because no longer only money is at stake, here you have to run to save yourself, and, according to experts, the next few years - from a climate perspective - will not be more peaceful.
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