The World Weather Organization sees a multiplication of natural disasters in the world caused by weather and climate. The comparison with the 1970s is clear.
Geneva – The number of weather or climate-related natural disasters has increased significantly since 1970. Between 2000 and 2009 there were five times as many as in the 1970s, as reported by the World Weather Organization (WMO) in Geneva.
In the ten years that followed, from 2010 to 2019, the number of weather-related natural disasters fell slightly. A total of around 11,000 such disasters were reported between 1970 and 2019. More than two million people were killed. It is about storms, floods, droughts or extreme heat events. Disasters such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions are not taken into account.
The WMO has long warned that such natural disasters are increasing and becoming more intense due to climate change. It supports the development of early warning systems. Because more people in more countries can now be warned of approaching storms at an early stage, the number of fatalities has fallen significantly. In the 1970s there were more than 55,000 deaths, from 2010 to 2019 there were 18,500. dpa
