Climate Change Has the Potential to Worsen Natural Disasters
Climate Change is said to be able to worsen natural disasters. This was revealed directly by the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lt. Gen. Suharyanto, where climate change occurring in the world has significantly increased the potential for disaster events.
[From the Indonesia Water Portal]
“Based on the data we collected from January 1 to May 31 2023, there were at least 1,675 events, dominated by hydrometeorological disasters at 99.1%, with details of 92.5% being wet hydrometeorological disasters and 6.6% being dry hydrometeorological disasters, the rest being “geological and volcanological disasters,” said Suharyanto, quoted by BNPB.
In Indonesia, according to Suharyanto, hydrometeorological disasters have dominated the natural disasters that occurred in the first five months of 2023.
Hydrometeorological Disasters
Hydrometeorological natural disasters are highly susceptible to the impact of climate change. Hydrometeorological disasters are often caused by unusual atmospheric conditions.
Examples of hydrometeorological disasters are floods, landslides, tornadoes, cyclones and droughts. The impact of these disasters was widespread and affected many areas.
According to data from the international disaster data centre from Kompas.id, The International Disaster Database EM-DAT, hydrometeorological disaster coverage is more than 50 per cent of the total world disaster events, with total losses of 1.67 trillion US dollars or IDR 25 quadrillion.
Natural disasters such as floods and landslides continue to occur in various parts of the world, even in Indonesia.
According to The International Disaster Database EM-DAT, throughout the period 1900 to 2023, the number of disaster events increased drastically, especially starting in the 1980s and the average increase reached 22 per cent with a comprehensive coverage of events throughout the world.
Natural Disasters Affected by Climate Change
Flood
One of the factors that causes flooding is high rainfall over a long period. This was the reason why Banjarmasin was hit by floods for almost a month in 2022. At that time, over 130,000 people were displaced due to ongoing floods.
Heavy rainfall in Indonesia also caused flooding in Banjarmasin, Malang Regency, Blitar Regency, and five districts in Central Kalimantan.
Heavy rainfall caused devastating floods in West Germany, resulting in the deaths of at least 177 people, with over 100 still missing. Devastating floods also hit Belgium and killed up to 37 people.
Extreme Heat Temperatures
Climate change has the potential to cause a significant increase or decrease in the Earth’s temperature. In this case, climate change can encourage extreme temperature increases.
An analysis by Berkley Earth found that 29 countries will experience almost 400 all-time high-temperature records between May and August 2019, according to BBC News Indonesia.
Climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera reported over 260 high-temperature records in 26 countries by mid-2021.
Responding to this, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, who is a climate researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, said that this figure was much higher than what he predicted.
“This number of records is really surprising, we didn’t expect that many,” said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, quoted by BBC.com
“The biggest problem, however, is that we haven’t seen it come with that kind of intensity.”
Between June 24 and 30, 2021, North American cities have witnessed extreme weather conditions with over 1,200 daytime and 1,500 nighttime temperature records being broken, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The United States and Canada have been greatly affected by this phenomenon.
In Lytton, British Columbia, Canada, the temperature reached 49.6 degrees Celsius for three consecutive days, breaking the country’s temperature record.
A village was almost entirely burned by a wildfire caused by extreme heat and drought.
In 2021, there have been 4,900 fires in California. The difference is 700 more than the fires that occurred in 2020.
Extreme Storm
Apart from floods, extreme storms can also result from high rainfall. In July 2021, Zhengzhou, China experienced this natural disaster.
During that time, Zhengzhou experienced a year’s worth of rainfall, equivalent to 624 mm.
This severe storm lasted for a week and caused flooding, resulting in 33 fatalities and the evacuation of 200,000 people.
The Chinese newspaper Xinhua, quoted from Kompas.id, revealed that possible losses due to this natural disaster could reach 2 billion US dollars.
Conclusion
Climate change refers to significant changes in global temperature and weather patterns, primarily caused by human activity and amplified by natural processes. The impact of climate change can disrupt weather patterns and upset the balance of nature.
To prevent this from happening, of course, we have to start making changes. We can begin mitigating climate change by starting with small changes. One way is to reduce carbon emissions and manage waste responsibly.
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