As the seasons change so too it appears does the incidence of storms, landslides and floods that all too often accompany fall and spring weather.
September saw many events across the globe of landslides taking the lives of people from Wales, Uganda, Philippines and more. Similarly floods accompanying hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and tropical storms battered coastal communities causing millions of dollars in damage in Mexico, the US and elsewhere with loss of life. Earthquakes were also not far from the news causing damage in Sulawesi in Indonesia in October and causing severe landslides in Palu. Mallorca in Spain felt the impacts of a very large flash flood and violent storms have lashed France in recent days. You can see more on Dave Petley’s Landslide Blog.
October also saw the release of the Special Report on Global Warming from the IPCC that governments approved a 1.5⁰C limit to global warming. Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group I, Panmao Zhai said “One of the key messages that comes out very strongly from this report is that we are already seeing the consequences of 1°C of global warming through more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, among other changes”.
Whatever the reason, climate change or just natural variation in the weather, natural hazards are here to stay, and will continue to disrupt the lives of people around the globe. The work of ecorisQ and its members as well as those in similar organisations becomes ever more important as society aims to understand, respond to, or manage these many natural hazards.
