Jamaine Punzalan

Debris litter Purok 7 Nonong Casto in Lemery, Batangas after severe tropical storm Kristine, Oct. 29, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/173527729274520241029-kristine-aftermath-lemery-JC-8.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Debris litter Purok 7 Nonong Casto in Lemery, Batangas after severe tropical storm Kristine, Oct. 29, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File</span></span></span></div><p>From tiny and impoverished Mayotte to oil-rich behemoth Saudi Arabia, prosperous European cities to overcrowded slums in Africa, nowhere was spared the devastating impact of supercharged climate disasters in 2024.</p><p>This year is the hottest in history, with record-breaking temperatures in the atmosphere and oceans acting like fuel for extreme weather around the world.</p><p>World Weather Attribution, experts on how global warming influences extreme events, said nearly every disaster they analysed over the past 12 months was intensified by climate change.</p><p>&quot;The impacts of fossil fuel warming have never been clearer or more devastating than in 2024. We are living in a dangerous new era,&quot; said climate scientist Friederike Otto, who leads the WWA network.</p><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>HEAT </strong></div><div><strong><br/></strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4APja13x8fw?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>That was tragically evident in June when more than 1,300 people died during the Muslim hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia where temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit).</p><p>Extreme heat -- sometimes dubbed the &#x27;silent killer&#x27; -- also proved deadly in Thailand, India, and United States.</p><p>Conditions were so intense in Mexico that howler monkeys dropped dead from the trees, while Pakistan kept millions of children at home as the mercury inched above 50C.</p><p>Greece recorded its earliest ever heatwave, forcing the closure of its famed Acropolis and fanning terrible wildfires, at the outset of Europe&#x27;s hottest summer yet.</p><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>FLOODS</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q_S-w_ell_U?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Climate change isn&#x27;t just sizzling temperatures -- warmer oceans mean higher evaporation, and warmer air absorbs more moisture, a volatile recipe for heavy rainfall.</p><p>In April, the United Arab Emirates received two years worth of rain in a single day, turning parts of the desert-state into a sea, and hobbling Dubai&#x27;s international airport.</p><p>Kenya was barely out of a once-in-a-generation drought when the worst floods in decades delivered back-to-back disasters for the East African nation.</p><p>Four million people needed aid after historic flooding killed more than 1,500 people across West and Central Africa. Europe -- most notably Spain -- also suffered tremendous downpours that caused deadly flash flooding.</p><p>Afghanistan, Russia, Brazil, China, Nepal, Uganda, India, Somalia, Pakistan, Burundi and the United States were among other countries that witnessed flooding in 2024.</p><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>CYCLONES</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-VAdiLIozlc?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Warmer ocean surfaces feed energy into tropical cyclones as they barrel toward land, whipping up fierce winds and their destructive potential.</p><p>Major hurricanes pummeled the United States and Caribbean, most notably Milton, Beryl and Helene, in a 2024 season of above-average storm activity.</p><p>The Philippines endured six major storms in November alone, just two months after suffering Typhoon Yagi as it tore through Southeast Asia.</p><p>In December, scientists said global warming had helped intensify Cyclone Chino to a Category 4 storm as it collided head-on with Mayotte, devastating France&#x27;s poorest overseas territory.</p><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>DROUGHTS AND WILDFIRES</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2_1g3BIzwUE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Some regions may be wetter as climate change shifts rainfall patterns, but others are becoming drier and more vulnerable to drought.</p><p>The Americas suffered severe drought in 2024 and wildfires torched millions of hectares in the western United States, Canada, and the Amazon basin -- usually one of Earth&#x27;s wettest places.</p><p>Between January and September, more than 400,000 fires were recorded across South America, shrouding the continent in choking smoke.</p><p>The World Food Programme in December said 26 million people across southern Africa were at risk of hunger as a months-long drought parched the impoverished region.</p><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>ECONOMIC TOLL </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Extreme weather cost thousands of lives in 2024 and left countless more in desperate poverty. The lasting toll of such disasters is impossible to quantify.</p><p>In terms of economic losses, Zurich-based reinsurance giant Swiss Re estimated the global damage bill at $310 billion, a statement issued early December.</p><p>Flooding in Europe -- particularly in the Spanish province of Valencia, where over 200 people died in October -- and hurricanes Helene and Milton drove up the cost, the company said.</p><p>As of November 1, the United States had suffered 24 weather disasters in 2024 with losses exceeding $1 billion each, government figures showed.</p><p>Drought in Brazil cost its farming sector $2.7 billion between June and August, while &quot;climatic challenges&quot; drove global wine production to its lowest level since 1961, an industry body said.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>From tiny and impoverished Mayotte to oil-rich behemoth Saudi Arabia, prosperous European cities to overcrowded slums in Africa, nowhere was spared the devastating impact of supercharged climate disasters in 2024.</p>

From tiny and impoverished Mayotte to oil-rich behemoth Saudi Arabia, prosperous European cities to overcrowded slums in Africa, nowhere was spared the devastating impact of supercharged climate disasters in 2024.

'Dangerous new era': climate change spurs disaster in 2024

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'Dangerous new era': climate change spurs disaster in 2024

Agence France-Presse

Published December 27, 2024 01:45 PM PHT

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