In the last few years, many countries around the world including India have been witness to major natural disasters like floods, heatwaves, storms and wild fires. Thousands of people have lost their lives in these disasters. Scientists have been warning about global warming and climate change for a long time. To improve these, necessary steps are also being taken by many international organizations including the United Nations.
According to Reuters, in the last two decades, climate change has caused large-scale devastation in many countries and along with it, the countries have also suffered financial losses worth billions. Let’s take a look at those natural disasters of the last decade which caused devastation –
August-September, 2017
6 years ago, in the months of August and September 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria took the lives of thousands of people in many cities of America and the Caribbean. Hurricane Harvey’s winds blowing at a speed of 209 km per hour caused so much destruction that thousands of houses were destroyed, people were rendered homeless, there was so much water on the roads that vehicles were floating and 2,11,000 people were without electricity. These cyclones caused maximum devastation in Texas, Florida of America and Puerto Rico of the Caribbean. A total of about 5 thousand people lost their lives in these disasters, out of which most of the deaths were due to Cyclone Maria. This cyclone caused a loss of more than Rs 1 trillion. At the same time, 88 lives were lost due to Harvey and 134 due to Irma. Both the cyclones caused destruction of 1.25 crore and 6.5 crore respectively.
Wildfire in California in 2017-2018
In the years 2017 and 2018, there were so many wildfires in California that hundreds of people died. The incident of uncontrolled fire in forests is called wild fire. This is a natural disaster and such incidents are often seen in summer, in which forests catch fire on their own. In the year 2017, 40 lives were lost in wildfire and there was a loss of Rs 1.80 trillion, whereas in the wildfire incidents of 2018, 103 died and there was a loss of Rs 1.48 trillion.
Bush Fire in Australia in 2019-2020
In the years 2019 and 2020, there was huge loss due to forest fire in Australia also. These incidents resulted in 34 deaths and destruction of Rs 1.1 trillion.
There was devastation in Japan due to typhoon in 2019
The months of August and October of the year 2019 proved to be very troublesome for Japan. During this time, Typhoon Hajibis had hit Japan, which killed 85 people. It was caught in its grip and there was a loss of 9.1 billion dollars.
Floods in Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands in July 2021
Floods in Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands caused such devastation that 230 people lost their lives. And there was a loss of more than Rs 4 trillion.
Heatwave took 1,400 lives in America in 2021
1,400 people died due to heatwave in northwestern America and British Columbia and there was financial loss worth billions.
Cyclone Ida hit New York in 2021. Cyclone Ida of 2021 caused massive devastation in Louisiana, New Jersey and New York City of America. These disasters resulted in 107 deaths and a loss of $75 billion.
Hundreds of Pakistanis lost their lives in the flood of 2022
There was a massive flood in Pakistan in the months of June and August of 2022, which took the lives of hundreds of people. 1,717 people were killed in this disaster and there was a loss of 3 billion dollars.
Incidents of heatwave last year
During the summer last year, a large number of heatwave incidents were seen in Europe, in which 1,500 lives were lost and there was damage worth billions.
Hurricane Ian had caused destruction in Florida in September 2022. Last year in the month of September 2022, Hurricane Ian had hit Florida, America, which caused destruction of more than 100 billion dollars and 101 people were killed.