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SINGAPORE – As Covid-19 devastated livelihoods and economies this year, another crisis has piled into more misery, reminding the world that even when the pandemic finally subsides, there remains a larger crisis for humanity to face: the climate change.
The world is constantly heating up and this has become dangerous territory. Warmer oceans and a warmer atmosphere are changing weather patterns and fueling more extreme heat waves, storms, floods, as well as longer droughts and deadlier wildfires.
As humanity pumps more planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and agriculture, it is giving an extra boost to the global climate.
In 2020, hundreds of millions of people in rich and poor nations felt terrifying weather extremes. It has broken records for wildfires, floods and storms, leaving swaths of destruction and increasing the suffering of many already recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
This year will be the third warmest on record, according to the UN World Meteorological Organization, and the past six years, including 2020, will likely be the warmest on record.
Fires
In Australia, 2020 continued with the extremes of heat and fire of 2019. In southern Victoria, thousands of terrified tourists spent the New Year camped on beaches as wildfires sparked by record drought and heat waves hit the coastal towns, including Mallacoota, where many people were stranded. The only safe way out was a large rescue launched by the navy.
It was just part of the drama of a record wildfire season in eastern Australia. Thousands of fires killed dozens and burned more than 18 million hectares. Weeks of suffocating smoke haze sickened thousands of people in Sydney and Canberra. After the first fires started in mid-2019, the last ones were finally extinguished in March of this year.
Extreme weather also fueled a record fire season in California, with major fires also in the states of Oregon and Washington. In California alone, the fires ravaged nearly 1.8 million hectares, destroyed thousands of homes and other structures and killed 33 people.
At the height of one of the biggest fires, a mysterious orange glow engulfed San Francisco as if to suggest that it too was about to be consumed.
Large fires also ravaged the Arctic forests and Brazil.
This year’s fire season was the worst in a decade in terms of the number of fires, data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research shows. Deforestation in Brazil also rose to a 12-year high.
Storms
As with the fires, 2020 will be remembered for its seemingly endless succession of storms across the Atlantic and western Pacific.
With 30 named storms, the Atlantic hurricane season that ended on November 30 was the busiest on record. Twelve of those storms hit the United States, including nine that hit the US Gulf Coast, causing billions of dollars in damage in back-to-back disasters that wiped some cities off the map.
Last month, Hurricane Eta and then even more powerful Iota hit Central America, devastating cities, causing floods and landslides in which dozens died.
A succession of storms, 22 in total, hit the Philippines, including Typhoon Goni, one of the strongest storms of 2020. Goni crashed into Catanduanes Island as a maximum category five storm on November 1. Less than two weeks later, Typhoon Vamco struck, killing 101 people.
Vamco mustered a devastating force as it approached the archipelago, causing massive floods that paralyzed almost the entire Manila metropolitan area.
At least 166 died in the Philippines this year from storms, which the National Council for Disaster Risk Reduction Management estimated cost at least 41.7 billion pesos (S $ 1.2 billion) in land damage. agriculture and infrastructure and displaced close to eight million people.
Between October and November, a series of storms also hit Vietnam, causing severe flooding and landslides that left dozens dead and missing. Typhoon Molave struck central Vietnam in late October, greatly exacerbating the already severe flooding in the area.
During the flood season, the Unesco heritage sites of Hoi An and the Imperial Citadel of Hue were also damaged.
This month, Cyclone Yasa, one of the strongest storms on record in the South Pacific, struck Fiji, killing four people, ruining the livelihoods of thousands and sparking a major relief campaign.
Floods
This year, China, Japan and India suffered severe flooding.
The 2020 summer monsoon season brought historic rains in China starting in June. In September, the media reported that the country had experienced at least 21 large-scale floods in 2020, the most flooding since 1996.
Heavy rains hit 28 of the country’s 31 provinces, causing economic losses of 214.3 billion yuan (43.6 billion Singapore dollars), which authorities said were 27% higher than the annual average for the past five years.
More than 70.47 million people were affected, according to figures from the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Hundreds of people died in South Asia from severe monsoon floods, particularly in Nepal, Assam in India and Bangladesh. Millions of people were affected and large areas of crops were damaged or destroyed.
In May, the powerful Cyclone Amphan also hit eastern India. The West Bengal state government said 98 people were killed and estimated damage from storms and floods at roughly 1.02 trillion rupees (S $ 18.5 billion).
In July, days of torrential rains in southwestern and central Japan triggered widespread flooding and landslides, killing more than 60 people and prompting an evacuation order for millions of people.
Additional information from Danson Cheong in Beijing, Raul Dancel in Manila, Debarshi Dasgupta in Kolkata
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