{"id":17223,"date":"2021-01-22T13:15:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T13:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/?p=98301"},"modified":"2021-01-22T13:15:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T13:15:03","slug":"climate-change-contributed-to-more-than-70-natural-disasters-since-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/22\/climate-change-contributed-to-more-than-70-natural-disasters-since-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change contributed to more than 70 natural disasters since 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of President Joe Biden\u2019s first actions after his inauguration Wednesday was signing an executive order to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/20\/climate\/biden-paris-climate-agreement.html\">rejoin the Paris climate agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s no time to waste in the fight against global warming, and here\u2019s one number that drives it home: 76. That\u2019s how many disasters and temperature anomalies scientists have demonstrated were made more likely or intensified by climate change from 2015 to 2020, from Hurricane Harvey\u2019s unprecedented flooding in Texas to extreme heat that played a role in the catastrophic Australian bushfires.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"article-email-signup\">\n\n    <div class=\"article-email-signup__inner\">\n\n                    <h4 class=\"article-email-signup__head\">Investigations in your inbox<\/h3>\n        \n        <div class=\"article-email-signup__row\">\n                            <p class=\"article-email-signup__text\">A quick dive each week into our reporting on race, power and privilege.<\/p>\n            \n            <div class=\"article-email-signup__form\">\n                <!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup\">\n    <form action=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.us4.list-manage.com\/subscribe\/post?u=8dc6eceed67f7f012462d0b12&amp;id=ffd1d0160d\" method=\"post\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" >\n        <div id=\"mc_embed_signup_scroll\">\n\n            <div class=\"mc-field-group\">\n                <label for=\"mce-EMAIL\">Email address<\/label>\n                <input required=\"required\" type=\"email\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"you@example.com\" name=\"EMAIL\" class=\"required email\" id=\"mce-EMAIL\">\n            <\/div>\n            <div id=\"mce-responses\" class=\"clear\">\n                <div class=\"response\" id=\"mce-error-response\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n                <div class=\"response\" id=\"mce-success-response\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n            <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->\n            <div style=\"position: absolute; left: -5000px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"b_8dc6eceed67f7f012462d0b12_ffd1d0160d\" tabindex=\"-1\" value=\"\"><\/div>\n            <div class=\"clear\"><input type=\"submit\" value=\"Join\" name=\"subscribe\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"btn\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        \n        <!-- The Watchdog group -->\n        <input type=\"hidden\" value=\"4294967296\" name=\"group[16933][4294967296]\" id=\"mce-group[16933]-16933-0\">\n        <!-- The Moment group -->\n        <input type=\"hidden\" value=\"8589934592\" name=\"group[16933][8589934592]\" id=\"mce-group[16933]-16933-1\">\n        \n    <\/form>\n<\/div>\n<!--End mc_embed_signup-->\n            <\/div>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p>The sobering statistic was in a recent report from the medical journal&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/countdown-health-climate#:~:text=Change%3A%202019%20report-,The%202019%20report%20of%20the%20Lancet%20Countdown%20on%20Health%20and,well%20below%202%CB%9AC.\">The Lancet<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;that focuses on the warming climate\u2019s impact on our health and wellbeing. Researchers also pointed to rising deaths from extreme heat and an increasing caseload of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/environment\/hidden-epidemics\/vibrio-deadly-bacteria-coastal-waters-climate-change-health\/\">diseases that flourish in warmer conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/topics\/environment\/hidden-epidemics\/\">Hidden Epidemics<\/a>\u201d series with Columbia Journalism Investigations has looked at those very dangers. We wanted to know how the government prepared for and responded to them, and what we found was inexcusably weak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though the federal government was discussing the health risks of a warming planet at least as far back as the 1980s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/environment\/hidden-epidemics\/underfunded-unprepared-cdc-fight-against-climate-change-public-health-heat-death\/\">didn\u2019t begin to focus on the problem until 2009<\/a>. That\u2019s when it launched a climate program to help state and local health departments safeguard their residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the effort has been underfunded from the start. Few health departments are getting CDC assistance. And a decade of political resistance, first from states that would rather ignore climate change and then from the Trump administration, made things worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Defense has called climate change a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/yaleclimateconnections.org\/2019\/06\/why-climate-change-is-a-threat-multiplier\/\">threat multiplier<\/a>.\u201d Hearing the stories of people who needlessly died from heat, many in homes they couldn\u2019t afford to cool, underscored for us how much it\u2019s an inequality multiplier as well. People with less \u2014 less money and political power especially \u2014 are often the most affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis fact reveals a deeper question of justice,\u201d the writers of the&nbsp;<em>Lancet<\/em>&nbsp;piece said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<br>\n<div class=\"article-email-signup__inner\" style=\"background: #fAf9f4; padding: 20px;\">\n  <h4 class=\"article-email-signup__head\">\n    We can&#8217;t do this work without your support.\n  <\/h4>\n        \n\n    <div class=\"article-email-signup__form\">\n    <!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->\n      <div id=\"mc_embed_signup\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n\n<form action=\"https:\/\/checkout.fundjournalism.org\/memberform?org_id=cpi&amp;Campaign\/701f40000012rRuAAI\"><input name=\"org_id\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"cpi\"> <input name=\"amount\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"15\"> <input name=\"campaign\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"701f40000012rRuAAI\"> <input name=\"installmentPeriod\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"monthly\"> \n         <input name=\"pay_fees\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"true\">\n <button style=\"position:relative; margin-bottom:20px;\" type=\"submit\" class=\"btn member-form__submit\">\n            <span>Give Now<\/span>\n          <\/button>\n        <\/form>\n       <\/div>\n   <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<br>\n\n\n\n<p>When we wrote about the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/environment\/hidden-epidemics\/disasters-mental-health-crisis-wildfire-hurricane-flood-climate-covid\/\">stress and trauma<\/a>&nbsp;of living in areas with repeated hurricanes, flooding and wildfires, we heard from people who want the country to reflect on that deeper question. And to do something about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMany people in the South [were shunted to] low-lying areas by the federal and state government, by Jim Crow,\u201d said Hilton Kelley of Port Arthur, Texas, a majority Black and Hispanic community hard hit by 2017\u2019s Hurricane Harvey. \u201cThose properties have been passed on through families. Now that we\u2019re being flooded out, we\u2019re being told we have to lift ourselves up by our bootstraps again. \u2026 Is that fair?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/environment\/hidden-epidemics\/dangerous-heat-illness-unequal-consequences\/\">investigation this week<\/a>&nbsp;into two epicenters of heat illness underscores how much the country\u2019s history of segregation continues to impact lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former President Donald Trump treated climate change like a hoax instead of a crisis, and his administration worked to undo efforts begun by his predecessor. But the CDC\u2019s climate program, launched at the start of the Obama administration,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/environment\/hidden-epidemics\/underfunded-unprepared-cdc-fight-against-climate-change-public-health-heat-death\/\">didn\u2019t make much headway during those years, either<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biden has pledged to make climate change and environmental justice a priority. Soon we\u2019ll have a clearer picture of how his administration plans to tackle these intractable problems.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/inside-publici\/newsletters\/watchdog-newsletter\/climate-change-warming-contributed-to-natural-disasters\/\">Climate change contributed to more than 70 natural disasters since 2015<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/inside-publici\/newsletters\/watchdog-newsletter\/climate-change-warming-contributed-to-natural-disasters\/\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of President Joe Biden\u2019s first actions after his inauguration Wednesday was signing an executive order to\u00a0rejoin the Paris climate agreement. There\u2019s no time to waste in the fight against global warming, and here\u2019s one number that drives it home: 76. That\u2019s how many disasters and temperature anomalies scientists have demonstrated were made more likely [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/inside-publici\/newsletters\/watchdog-newsletter\/climate-change-warming-contributed-to-natural-disasters\/\">Climate change contributed to more than 70 natural disasters since 2015<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3500],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17223"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17224,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17223\/revisions\/17224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}