by jadegil6 » Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:20 pm
Climate changes are created by Global Warming. Climate changes result in wet areas becoming wetter, and arid areas becoming drier. One global area severely affected by the "wet-getting-wetter" is Southeast Asia. The Philippines is located in Southeast Asia.
Those who suffer the worse are the poorest of the poor. Many of these people are settlers who take up residence along rivers and seashores, building shacks out of anything they can find that can make walls and a roof. When fllooding and other weather related or natural disasters occur, then it is these people who are most at risk
The Philippines is one of the countries that suffer the most from extreme weather events, which exact a high death toll and economic losses reports Germanwatch, an international think tank, which has studied this issue.
Analyzing data from 1991 to 2010, Germanwatch said the Philippines ranked 10th among countries when it came to exposure and responding to severe weather caused by climate change.
All the countries identified to be most affected in the past two decades were developing countries, the study noted. Aside from the Philippines, these were Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Pakistan and North Korea.
This year’s analysis underlines that less developed countries are generally more affected than industrialized countries, according to the Climate Risk Index. With regard to future climate change, the Climate Risk Index can serve as a warning signal indicating past vulnerability which may further increase in regions where extreme events will become more frequent or more severe through climate change, the report said.
The Philippines, a country of about 94 million, sits on the earthquake-prone Ring of Fire. It is also on the path of typhoons that form in the western Pacific. The country is visited by about 20 storms every year.
During the observation period, the Philippines had the biggest number of meteorological events recorded at 270. Bangladesh trailed behind at 251 weather events.
The death toll from various weather-related disasters in the Philippines reach an average of about 800 deaths per year. For every 100,000 Filipinos, 1.03 is killed by a meteorological disaster, according to the Germanwatch report. But the past two weeks Tropical Storms have resulted in a dramatic increase in the death toll. As of December 27, 2011, there have been more than 1500 deaths attributed to Sendong alone.
Severe weather catastrophes also lead to economic losses for the Philippines. The report says that the Philippines loses more than $660 million every year from disasters. But the damages created over the past two weeks by Sendong and other rain events are going to exceed that number, as these present predictions exceed one billion dollars in property and agricultural losses.
World Environmental Organizations seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 to stop the planet from heating up. Scientists said that a 2-degree-Celsius increase in global temperatures would cause extreme weather events that would be disastrous to many countries, especially those located in Southeast Asia. Many groups are working to establish a Green Climate Fund for countries vulnerable to climate change.
As the earth warms, and the temperatures of the waters of the oceans increase, there are more storms created, and this increase in typhoons and rain events will tragically affect the Philippines with more flooding and typhoon related wind damages.