Key Takeaways:
– 2024 marked the hottest year on record, fuelling extreme weather globally.
– Almost all of the year’s disasters were worsened by climate change, according to the World Weather Attribution.
– Heat, floods, cyclones, droughts, and wildfires wreaked havoc from Saudi Arabia to Spain, Mexico to Mayotte.
– These calamities claimed thousands of lives and caused immense damage estimated at $310 billion.
– 24 weather disasters in the US alone exceeded $1 billion each in losses.
Climate Chaos Takes its Toll in 2024
Forget about getting a breather; supercharged climate disasters were merciless in 2024. Every corner of our planet, from the tiny Mayotte and oil-rich Saudi Arabia to European cityscapes and Africa’s crowded slums, bore the brunt.
A Year of Scorching Global Heat Waves
Let’s go back to June: more than 1,300 pilgrims tragically lost their lives during Saudi Arabia’s holy hajj pilgrimage when temperatures soared to a brutal 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit). Heat, often labeled the ‘silent killer,’ didn’t stop there: it also claimed lives in Thailand, India, and the United States.
The heat was so intense in Mexico that it caused howler monkeys to drop dead from trees, while Pakistani schools shut doors as mercury topped 50C. Europe wasn’t spared either, with Greece experiencing its earliest ever heatwave that led to Acropolis’s closure and spread wildfires.
Torrential Floods Submerge Cities, Nations
Clarifying that climate change is not just about sizzling temperatures, warmer oceans marked higher evaporation rates, and warmer air absorbed more moisture, setting up a recipe for intense rainfall. In April, the UAE transformed into a sea after receiving two years’ worth of rain in a day, putting the sprawling Dubai airport to a standstill.
Kenya witnessed consecutive disasters: first, an extreme drought and then catastrophic floods, the worst in decades. Similar flood situations disrupted normal life in countries like Afghanistan, Russia, Brazil, China, Nepal, Uganda, India, Somalia, Pakistan, Burundi and even the United States.
Unleashing the Fury of Cyclones
Warmer ocean surfaces are like fuel for tropical cyclones, intensifying their disastrous potential. We saw this in the US and the Caribbean, with Hurricanes Milton, Beryl, and Helene leaving trails of destruction. The Philippines had a tough time with six major storms in November, just two months after Typhoon Yagi’s onslaught. Also, Cyclone Chino reached Category 4 status as it devastated France’s poorest overseas territory, Mayotte.
Droughts and Wildfires: Dry, Deadly, and Destructive
As climate change shifts rainfall patterns, some zones are becoming arid, leading to droughts. The Americas experienced severe drought in 2024. Concurrently, wildfires ravaged millions of hectares in the western United States, Canada, and the usually wet Amazon basin.
At the end of 2024, the World Food Programme issued a stark warning: 26 million people in southern Africa faced the risk of hunger due to a devastating drought.
Climate Disasters Punch the Global Economy Hard
Extreme weather events in 2024 not only cost thousands of lives but pushed countless more into desperate poverty. The monetary damage in 2024 by climatic disasters, as estimated by Zurich-based insurance giant Swiss Re, amounted to $310 billion.
In terms of numbers, the US encountered 24 billion-dollar weather disasters. Meanwhile, Brazil’s farming sector experienced a $2.7 billion hit due to droughts.
2024 was a grim reminder of our planet’s plight: a dangerous new era indeed. As we move forward, the impacts of warming will become clearer, and possibly more devastating – unless we take swift action towards mitigating climate change.