In less than 50 years global warming will cause Earth’s sharp rise in sea levels, deforestation and flooding that will affect some 2,000 million people, experts have warned the United Nations University.
However, in a study entitled ‘Environment and Human Security’, have indicated that there is still time to reverse this situation if steps are taken and improved weather forecasting systems worldwide.
Catastrophic flooding
Experts added that this situation of alarm was evident late last month with the floods that devastated farmland in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and caused more than a thousand deaths.
Created by the UN General Assembly in 1973, the University brings together experts in research, training and dissemination of knowledge related to pressing global problems.
The experts added that an estimated one billion people, ie one sixth of world population living in areas that will be the scene of the worst floods of the century.
Currently, only floods affecting over 530 million people worldwide, causing an average of 25,000 deaths a year, destroying homes, disease and loss of crops and livestock.
Irrational use of land
According to experts at the university, this situation has been exacerbated by the unsustainable and irrational use of land and other human actions.
“In a world more humid and hot as science predicts, the upper Northern Hemisphere will likely see more storms, while summers in some inland areas will be drier and prone to drought,” said Janos Bogardi, director of study.
According to the study, the most affected region will be Asia, where during the last decades an average of more than 400 million people have been hit by floods.
The experts have reported that the annual cost of floods and other climate-related disasters (mainly in developing countries) is between 50,000 and 60,000 million dollars, a sum equivalent to all the development aid given to countries donors.
Widespread problems
But problems are not limited to developing nations, also affect the industrialized countries, said the report. In Europe, the flood caused a hundred deaths in 2002, affected 450,000 people and caused losses estimated 20,000 million.
In the U.S., where 50 people died and damage was done by over 50,000 million due to overflow of the Mississippi River in 1993, floods are charged an average of 25 persons each year since 1980.
According to experts of the United Nations University, these problems will double in the areas most likely due to an expansion of climate processes (droughts or floods), the increase in sea levels and the continued deforestation.
“What is needed most urgently to the increasing risk of flood disasters is greater global capacity to monitor and forecast extreme events” of the climate, has emphasized Bogardi.
“With better information, you can install better warning systems and infrastructure to identify new strategies,” he added. But more than anything, according to the expert, “what is needed is to change the international mindset of the reaction (…) and charity to anticipation and prevention.”
The countries are very generous when it comes to help after the disaster, but much less so when it comes to making preparations to face, he added.
