{"id":440207,"date":"2022-04-30T17:49:18","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T14:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/deaths-in-climate-disasters-declined-99-from-a-century-ago\/"},"modified":"2022-04-30T17:49:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T14:49:18","slug":"deaths-in-climate-disasters-declined-99-from-a-century-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/deaths-in-climate-disasters-declined-99-from-a-century-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"#Deaths in climate disasters declined 99% from a century ago"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a23e73dda79e\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a23e73dda79e\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/deaths-in-climate-disasters-declined-99-from-a-century-ago\/#%E2%80%9CDeaths_in_climate_disasters_declined_99_from_a_century_ago%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Deaths in climate disasters declined 99% from a century ago&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CDeaths_in_climate_disasters_declined_99_from_a_century_ago%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Deaths in climate disasters declined 99% from a century ago&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>A new United Nations report has\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spacedaily.com\/reports\/Humanity_stuck_in_spiral_of_self-destruction_UN_999.html\">revealed<\/a>\u00a0the disturbing <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> that the number of global disasters has quintupled\u00a0since 1970 and will increase by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.undrr.org\/gar2022-our-world-risk#container-downloads\">another\u00a040\u00a0percent\u00a0in coming decades<\/a>. They find that more people are affected by disasters than ever before, and the UN Deputy Secretary-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General<\/a> warns humanity is \u201con a spiral of self-destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Astonishingly, the UN is misusing data, and its <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roach has been repeatedly shown to be wrong. Its finding makes for great headlines\u2014but it just isn\u2019t grounded in evidence.<\/p>\n<p>When the UN analyzed the number of disaster events, it made a basic error\u2014and one that\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BjornLomborg\/status\/1316408398464913408\">I\u2019ve called it out for making<\/a>\u00a0before: It basically counted all the catastrophes recorded by the most respected<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/public.emdat.be\/\">\u00a0international disaster database<\/a>, showed that they were increasing, and then suggested that the planet must be doomed.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that the documentation of all types of disasters in the 1970s was far patchier than it is today, when anyone with a cellphone can im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely share news of a storm or flood from halfway around the world.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-02.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Trees bend in the tropical storm wind along North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard in 2017.\" class=\"wp-image-22095420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Trees bend in the tropical storm wind along North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard in 2017.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That\u2019s why the disaster database\u2019s own experts explicitly\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.emdat.be\/thirty-years-natural-disasters-1974-2003-numbers\">warn<\/a>\u00a0amateurs not to conclude that an increase in registered disasters equates to more disasters in reality. Reaching such a conclusion \u201cwould be incorrect\u201d because the increase really just shows improvements in recording.<\/p>\n<p>You would think that the UN would know better especially when its top bureaucrats are using language that sounds like Armageddon is here.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, climate change is central to the UN agency\u2019s narrative. Their report warns there is a risk of more extreme weather disasters because of global warming, so the acceleration of \u201cclimate action\u201d is urgently needed. Somehow, the huge international organization has made the same basic fallacy that many of us do when we see more and more weather disasters aired on the TV news. Just because the world is more connected and we see more catastrophic events in our media doesn\u2019t mean that climate change is making them more damaging.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-10.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"A home burns during the Bear fire in Butte County, California, in Sept. 2020.\" class=\"wp-image-22095426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-10.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-10.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-10.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A home burns during the Bear fire in Butte County, California, in Sept. 2020.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So how do we robustly measure whether weather disasters really have really become worse? The best approach is not to count the catastrophes, but to look instead at deaths. Major losses of life have been registered pretty consistently over the past century.<\/p>\n<p>This data shows that climate-related events\u2014floods, droughts, storms, fires, and temperature extremes\u2014are not actually killing more people. Deaths have dropped by a huge amount: In the 1920s, almost half a million people were killed by climate-related disasters. In 2021, it was less than 7,000 people. Climate-related disasters kill 99% fewer people than 100 years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>The UN report does include a count of \u201cglobal disaster-related mortality\u201d\u2014and manages to find that contrary to the international disaster database, deaths are higher than ever before. They reach this conclusion by bizarrely including the deaths from COVID in the catastrophes. Remember, Covid killed more people just in 2020 than all the world\u2019s other catastrophes in the past half-century. Lumping these in with deaths from hurricanes and floods inappropriately seem designed to create headlines rather than understanding, especially when the agency is using the findings to argue for an acceleration of climate action.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-09.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Floodwater from the Mississippi River cuts off the roadway from Missouri into Illinois in 2019.\" class=\"wp-image-22095436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-09.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-09.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-09.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Floodwater from the Mississippi River cuts off the roadway from Missouri into Illinois in 2019.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The truth is that deaths from climate disasters have fallen dramatically because wealthier countries are much better at protecting citizens. Research\u00a0shows\u00a0this phenomenon consistently across almost all catastrophes, including storms, floods, cold and heatwaves.<\/p>\n<p>This matters, because by the end of this century, there will be more people in harm\u2019s way, and climate change will mean sea levels rise several feet.<\/p>\n<p>One comprehensive\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/111\/9\/3292\">study<\/a>\u00a0shows that at the beginning of the 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0century, around 3.4 million people experienced coastal flooding each year, causing $11 billion in annual damages. About $13 billion or 0.05% of global GDP was spent on coastal defenses.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-01.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"A satellite image of Hurricane Dorian in 2019.\" class=\"wp-image-22095441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-01.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-01.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-01.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A satellite image of Hurricane Dorian in 2019.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If we do nothing and just keep coastal defenses as they are today, vast areas of the planet will be routinely inundated by 2100, with 187 million people flooded and damage worth $55 trillion annually. That\u2019s more than 5% of global GDP.<\/p>\n<p>But we will obviously adapt, especially because the cost is so low. That means fewer people than ever will be flooded by 2100. Even the combined cost of adaptation and climate damages will decrease to just 0.008% of GDP.<\/p>\n<p>These facts show why it\u2019s important that organizations like the UN deliver us the real picture on disasters. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has bad form for making unfounded claims. Instead of headline-chasing with dodgy math and frightening language, the UN should do better\u2014and it should be focused on championing the importance of innovation and adaptation, to save more lives.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-07.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"A car is seen under rubble after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Ida in Aug. 2021.\" class=\"wp-image-22095443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-07.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-07.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-07.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A car is seen under rubble after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Ida in August 2021.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Bjorn Lomborg is President of the Copenhagen Consensus and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University\u2019s Hoover Institution. His latest book is \u201cFalse Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.\u201d<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/04\/30\/deaths-in-climate-disasters-declined-99-from-a-century-ago\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Deaths in climate disasters declined 99% from a century ago&#8221; A new United Nations report has\u00a0revealed\u00a0the disturbing news that the number of global disasters has quintupled\u00a0since 1970 and will increase by another\u00a040\u00a0percent\u00a0in coming decades. They find that more people are affected by disasters than ever before, and the UN Deputy Secretary-General warns humanity is \u201con&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":440208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/natural-disasters-comp.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[128673,43485,73848,9724,70850],"class_list":["post-440207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4-30-22","tag-climate-change","tag-natural-disasters","tag-study-says","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}