The claim that global warming and climate change aren’t real gets increasingly ridiculous each year. For one, the science just makes it so much more obvious as it develops (but, truthfully, it’s been obvious for years). Additionally, the real-world climate disasters just keep increasing. In the past two years, for example, 42 million Asians have been displaced from climate-related disasters, the Asian Development Bank reported this week.
“Asia and the Pacific is the global area most prone to natural disasters, both in terms of the absolute number of disasters and of populations affected,” the report, Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific, noted.
Approximately 31.8 million were displaced by climate disasters in 2010, about 10 million of which in Pakistan. Another 10.7 million or so were displaced in 2011.
The thoughtless idea that we’ll be able to just adapt to global warming and climate change, and that we should focus all our energy on that rather than on slowing or stopping global warming, is surely going to put millions upon millions more in such horrific situations.
“While many of those displaced returned to their homes as conditions improved, others were less fortunate, struggling to build new lives elsewhere after incurring substantial personal losses,” ADB vice president Bindu Lohani said in the report foreword.
India and Bangladesh are reportedly the two countries most in danger of climate change’s various impacts. Another four Asian countries are in the top 10: Nepal, the Philippines, Afghanistan, and Myanmar.
Of course, for countries like these (and all countries, probably), a lot is needed in the climate change adaptation arena. We are just beginning to see the impacts of emissions form decades ago. The coming decades will be a struggle for many in Asia and elsewhere.
Source: Terra Daily
Photo Credit: DFID – UK Department for International Development