Weather Disasters & Climate Change

Weather Disasters & Climate Change

By Dr Arvind Kumar

According to a UN science report released on 18 November the link between climate change and extreme weather events, including punishing heat waves, droughts, and torrential rains and resulting floods is confirmed. The report warns that the U.S. will suffer heat waves, droughts, and more powerful hurricanes like Irene, with vulnerable people and places likely to suffer most from extreme weather, including low-lying island States facing sea level rise and stronger storm surges, and drought-prone countries in Africa. New York released its own climate study in mid-November, predicting that with expected sea level rise and stronger storms, future hurricanes could flood the tunnels into Manhattan within an hour and put one-third of the city underwater, with climate induced impacts beginning within a decade. The cost of US weather disasters in 2011 is already approaching $50 billion, according to the National Climate Data Center.

It is now certain that human emissions of greenhouse gases and warming aerosols like black carbon are increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather by putting more heat energy into the climate system. Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, has suggested: “These climate change impacts have become so clear and so close now that we need fast, aggressive mitigation if we hope to avoid the worst consequences. “Fast mitigation is the best adaptation, and it means cutting short-lived climate forcers, including black carbon, ground-level ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, used in refrigeration. Cutting these non-CO₂ climate forcers can be done quickly and inexpensively using existing technologies and in most cases existing laws and institutions.”

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