Floods, Heatwaves and Wildfires don’t Need to Turn into Disasters (UN Risk Report)

New York (United Nations)- Hazards such as earthquakes, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires can be prevented from turning into life-threatening disasters, according to a UN report launched on Wednesday.

From record-breaking heatwaves in British Columbia, to wildfires in the Mediterranean, floods in Nigeria, and droughts in Taiwan; the period between 2021 and 2022 saw record-breaking catastrophic disasters in all corners of the world.

Some 10,000 people lost their lives, and an estimated $280 billion was incurred in damages worldwide.

The latest Interconnected Disaster Risks report, from the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), finds that many of these disasters shared root causes.

The study’s authors found that the solutions to preventing or managing them are also closely linked.

“Disasters occurring in completely different parts of the world at first appear disconnected from each other. But when you start analyzing them in more detail it quickly becomes clear that they are caused by the same things, for example greenhouse gas emissions or unsustainable consumption,” said Dr. Zita Sebesvari, lead author and deputy director of UNU-EHS.

To connect the dots, the research team of the Interconnected Disaster Risks report looked “below the surface” of each disaster and identified the drivers that allowed them to occur in the first place.

For instance, deforestation leads to soil erosion, which in turn makes land highly susceptible to hazards such as landslides, drought, and sandstorms.

An even deeper dive shows that the drivers of disasters are formed by shared root causes which are more systemic in nature, such as through economic and political systems.

Deforestation can be traced back to placing economic interests over those of the environment and to unsustainable consumption patterns.

Other common root causes found in the report include inequality of development and livelihood opportunities, human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, and legacies of colonialism. It is root causes like these that can be found in disasters around the globe.

The solutions are also interconnected, which means that one type of solution can be applied in several contexts to reduce the impact of disasters in different parts of the world. Additionally, there are multiple solutions to address one disaster and they are most powerful when applied in combination with each other.

The “let nature work” solution, for example, draws on the strength of nature to prevent risks and avoid disasters.

Prescribed burning in forests can reduce the risk of mega-fires in the Mediterranean; restoring urban rivers and streams can reduce the impacts of floods like the one that hit New York in the wake of Hurricane Ida; and investing in boosting early warning systems can improve prediction and communication of risks ahead of time.

“If we don’t want the disasters which we are currently experiencing to become the new normal, we need to recognize that they are interconnected, as are their solutions,” says lead author Dr. Jack O’Connor.

“We have the right kind of solutions to better prevent and manage hazards, but we need to urgently invest in scaling them up and developing a better understanding of how they can work in combination with each other.”