The Red Cross said on Tuesday, the world should react with a similar urgency to climate change as to the COVID-19 crisis. In relation to this, the Red Cross also warned that global warming postures a greater danger than the pandemic almost the whole world is currently experiencing.
In a report, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies said, even as the pandemic angers, climate change has not taken a break from causing devastation.
In this said report on worldwide disasters since the 60s decade, the Geneva-based organization emphasized that the world had been smashed by over 100 catastrophes, a lot of them climate-related, since the declaration of the pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March. Specifically, the Red Cross said, over 50 million had been affected.
A Serious Crisis
According to IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Capagain, evidently, the COVID-19 is there "in front of us, it is affecting our families, our friends, our relatives."
The IFRC official added that the pandemic, which has already claimed over 1.3 million lives, is a serious crisis almost the entire world is presently facing.
Capagain warned, though, that the organization expects climate change is likely to have a more considerable medium, not to mention long-term effect on humans and on Earth.
Moreover, as it appeared increasingly likely that an individual or several vaccines against COVID-19 would soon be available, the IFRC Secretary-General stressed that, unfortunately, no vaccine is available to combat climate change.
'Global Warming'
Capagain also cautioned, when it comes to global warming, it will need a "much more sustained action and investment" to actually shield the human life here on Earth.
Furthermore, according to the IFRC, the intensity and frequency of extreme weather and other events related to climate had already increased substantially in the past decades.
Reports on this claim indicated that in 2019 alone, when more than 300 disasters hit the world, 77 percent of such disasters weather- or climate-related, claiming the lives of more than 24,000 people.
Referring to the said 2019 report, the IFRC said the number of these weather- and climate-related disasters has been constantly rising since the 60s decade and surged by almost 35 percent since the 90s decade. This, the organization added, is such a fatal development.
Weather and Climate-Related Disasters Impacting Poorer Countries
As the new report specified, Weather and climate-related disasters have taken the lives of over 410,000 people over the last ten years, the majority of them from poor countries, with "heatwaves and storms" proving the deadliest.
Faced with this danger which reportedly, literally impends the long-term survival of humans, the IFRC called on the international community to do some actions in terms of the urgency needed.
The organization approximated that roughly $50 billion would be needed each year over the next ten years to help 50 developing nations to adjust to the constantly changing climate.
IFRC emphasized that the said amount is dwarfed by the worldwide response to the economic effect of COVID-19, which has already reportedly exceeded $10 trillion.
The organization lamented, too, that much of the money invested so far in preventing and mitigating climate change was not going to the developing nations most at risk.
Chapagain said their first responsibility is to shield communities that are most exposed and susceptible to climate risks. The official cautioned, though, that their study shows that the world "is collectively failing to do this."
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