On Monday, the United Nations released a statement documenting a dramatic increase in natural disasters occurring over the past two decades due to the current climate crisis the world is facing. Researchers at the UN declared that political and business leaders have failed in taking meaningful action to mitigate the risks posed by climate change, arguing that if no action is taken in the near future, Earth will turn into an “uninhabitable hell” for millions.
According to the UN, between 2000 and 2019 there were 7,348 major natural disasters that claimed 1.23 million lives and affected 4.2 billion people. The natural disasters also reportedly resulted in $2.97 trillion in global economic losses. From 1980-1999, there were only 4,212 natural disasters. Therefore, the past 20 years experienced almost double the amount of major natural disasters than in the previous two decades, attributed to climate change. Major natural disasters are classified as including 10 or more deaths, 100 or more affected, or calls for international assistance and include occurrences such as flooding, droughts, heatwaves, hurricanes, tornados, and wildfires.
