Environment
The 2018 monsoon caused most damage in India; and the same year, India also witnessed one of the longest ever heatwaves.
An image from Kerala floods 2019
In the past two years, India has seen many extreme weather-related calamities such as the Kerala and Karnataka floods and landslides of both 2018 and 2019, the Chennai water crisis, cyclones, and the heat wave which saw the highest temperature of 50.8°C in Churu, Rajasthan, to name a few.
While extreme changes in weather and climate are taking places in other places in the world as well, India has been found to be the fifth most affected when it comes to extreme weather in 2018. The Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2020 released on Wednesday by Germanwatch, an environmental think tank made the observation.
CRI analyses economic impact as well as fatalities due to extreme weather events. Both absolute and relative impacts are analysed to create an average ranking of counties. The higher a country ranks on the index, the more severely impacted it is.
In this regard, Japan, Philippines, Germany and Madagascar were most affected by extreme climate events, in that order. Sri Lanka came sixth, after India, followed by Kenya, Rwanda, Canada and Fiji.
Of these top 10 most affected countries, India incurred the most economic losses – $34,807.82 – with purchasing power parity* adjusted.
The report explains the extreme weather events in each of the 10 most affected countries. When it comes to India, it was the monsoon of 2018 which was found to have caused the most damage that year. The report mentions the devastating Kerala floods – worst in a century – in which 324 people died, over 2.20 lakh were displaced, and 20,000 homes and 80 dams were destroyed.
“Furthermore, India’s east coast was hit by the cyclones Titli and Gaja in October and November 2018. With wind speeds of up to 150 kilometres per hour, cyclone Titli killed at least eight people and left around 450 000 without electricity,” the report adds.
Heatwaves
India was also affected by one of the longest ever heatwaves in 2018, which also resulted in prolonged drought and subsequent massive scale crop failure. These were worsened by water shortage, leading to riots and increased migration.
Experiencing severe heatwaves in 2018 and 2019, it was found that India has experienced 11 of its 15 hottest years since 2004. Since 1992, heatwaves have taken the lives of 25,000 people in the country, with the worst affected areas being the poorest.
“Additionally, a high number of people are working in areas such as agriculture and construction. A study by the International Labour Organization concludes that by 2030, India would lose 5.8% of its working hours due to heat stress, which is equivalent to 34 million full-time jobs out of a total of 80 million worldwide,” the report says.
Long-term, recurrent impact
The CRI 2020 also calculates the most affected countries by extreme weather calamities in two decades – the period of 1999 to 2018. Here India’s neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal were found to be 5th, 7th, and 9th most affected respectively. Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti, and Philippines topped the list in that order. Puerto Rico had topped the list in CRI 2019 also.
Some of these countries fall in the category that has recently emerged in the last few years, the report says: those recurrently affected by catastrophes and continuously rank among most affected countries in both the long-term (1999-2018) and yearly indices.
An important observation the report makes is that extreme weather events affect poorest countries the most, “as these are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of a hazard and have a lower coping capacity and may need more time to rebuild and recover.”
How climate change impacts extreme weather events
Quoting various studies, the CRI 2020 report explains that linking particular extreme weather events to climate change is a scientific challenge. However, many studies concluded that the “frequency, intensity, and duration of some extreme weather events have been changing as the climate system has warmed.”
For instance, global warming leads to higher temperatures which leads to intensification of the water cycles. This means that there will be more droughts, along with increased floods due to drier soil and increased humidity. In fact, the disastrous effects of extreme precipitation, which affected many regions in South and South East Asia and Africa, have brought the affected countries in these regions into the top ten most affected on the CRI.
“Extreme precipitation is expected to increase as global warming intensifies the global hydrological cycle. Thereby, single precipitation events are expected to increase in intensity at a higher rate than global mean changes in total precipitation […],” the report says.
Further, surface sea temperatures impact increase in storms, wind speeds and precipitation too. “It is still difficult to distinguish between natural variability and human-induced extremes, but the rising sea level, which is largely caused by climate change, is responsible for the increased intensity of floods, storms and droughts,” the report explains.
Climate change is also impacting desertification and degradation of land, increasing the risk of the former in the future. This has negative implications for loss of biodiversity as well a potential increase in wildfires.
While the report has some alarming observations, it cautions that it does not take into account “important slow-onset processes such as rising sea-levels, glacier melting or more acidic and warmer seas. It is based on past data and should not be used as a basis for a linear projection of future climate impacts” or for drawing far-reaching conclusions that impact political discussions or policy.
*Purchasing power is defined in the reports as “a currency exchange rate, which permits a comparison of, for instance, national GDPs, by incorporating price differences between countries. This means that a farmer in India can buy more crops with US$ 1 than a farmer in the USA with the same amount of money. Thus, the real consequences of the same nominal damage are much higher in India.”
While extreme changes in weather and climate are taking places in other places in the world as well, India has been found to be the fifth most affected when it comes to extreme weather in 2018. The Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2020 released on Wednesday by Germanwatch, an environmental think tank made the observation.
CRI analyses economic impact as well as fatalities due to extreme weather events. Both absolute and relative impacts are analysed to create an average ranking of counties. The higher a country ranks on the index, the more severely impacted it is.
In this regard, Japan, Philippines, Germany and Madagascar were most affected by extreme climate events, in that order. Sri Lanka came sixth, after India, followed by Kenya, Rwanda, Canada and Fiji.
Of these top 10 most affected countries, India incurred the most economic losses – $34,807.82 – with purchasing power parity* adjusted.
The report explains the extreme weather events in each of the 10 most affected countries. When it comes to India, it was the monsoon of 2018 which was found to have caused the most damage that year. The report mentions the devastating Kerala floods – worst in a century – in which 324 people died, over 2.20 lakh were displaced, and 20,000 homes and 80 dams were destroyed.
“Furthermore, India’s east coast was hit by the cyclones Titli and Gaja in October and November 2018. With wind speeds of up to 150 kilometres per hour, cyclone Titli killed at least eight people and left around 450 000 without electricity,” the report adds.
Heatwaves
India was also affected by one of the longest ever heatwaves in 2018, which also resulted in prolonged drought and subsequent massive scale crop failure. These were worsened by water shortage, leading to riots and increased migration.
Experiencing severe heatwaves in 2018 and 2019, it was found that India has experienced 11 of its 15 hottest years since 2004. Since 1992, heatwaves have taken the lives of 25,000 people in the country, with the worst affected areas being the poorest.
“Additionally, a high number of people are working in areas such as agriculture and construction. A study by the International Labour Organization concludes that by 2030, India would lose 5.8% of its working hours due to heat stress, which is equivalent to 34 million full-time jobs out of a total of 80 million worldwide,” the report says.
Long-term, recurrent impact
The CRI 2020 also calculates the most affected countries by extreme weather calamities in two decades – the period of 1999 to 2018. Here India’s neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal were found to be 5th, 7th, and 9th most affected respectively. Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti, and Philippines topped the list in that order. Puerto Rico had topped the list in CRI 2019 also.
Some of these countries fall in the category that has recently emerged in the last few years, the report says: those recurrently affected by catastrophes and continuously rank among most affected countries in both the long-term (1999-2018) and yearly indices.
An important observation the report makes is that extreme weather events affect poorest countries the most, “as these are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of a hazard and have a lower coping capacity and may need more time to rebuild and recover.”
How climate change impacts extreme weather events
Quoting various studies, the CRI 2020 report explains that linking particular extreme weather events to climate change is a scientific challenge. However, many studies concluded that the “frequency, intensity, and duration of some extreme weather events have been changing as the climate system has warmed.”
For instance, global warming leads to higher temperatures which leads to intensification of the water cycles. This means that there will be more droughts, along with increased floods due to drier soil and increased humidity. In fact, the disastrous effects of extreme precipitation, which affected many regions in South and South East Asia and Africa, have brought the affected countries in these regions into the top ten most affected on the CRI.
“Extreme precipitation is expected to increase as global warming intensifies the global hydrological cycle. Thereby, single precipitation events are expected to increase in intensity at a higher rate than global mean changes in total precipitation […],” the report says.
Further, surface sea temperatures impact increase in storms, wind speeds and precipitation too. “It is still difficult to distinguish between natural variability and human-induced extremes, but the rising sea level, which is largely caused by climate change, is responsible for the increased intensity of floods, storms and droughts,” the report explains.
Climate change is also impacting desertification and degradation of land, increasing the risk of the former in the future. This has negative implications for loss of biodiversity as well a potential increase in wildfires.
While the report has some alarming observations, it cautions that it does not take into account “important slow-onset processes such as rising sea-levels, glacier melting or more acidic and warmer seas. It is based on past data and should not be used as a basis for a linear projection of future climate impacts” or for drawing far-reaching conclusions that impact political discussions or policy.
*Purchasing power is defined in the reports as “a currency exchange rate, which permits a comparison of, for instance, national GDPs, by incorporating price differences between countries. This means that a farmer in India can buy more crops with US$ 1 than a farmer in the USA with the same amount of money. Thus, the real consequences of the same nominal damage are much higher in India.”
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Source: TheNewsMinute.com