Cyclone Sidr
November 17th, 2007 by Anindita Sengupta
We’ve been repeatedly told that climate change will affect some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. And yet another disaster has come along as hard, cold evidence. Cyclone Sidr swooped down on Bangladesh on Thursday evening, killing around 900 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless or injured. The actual numbers are probably far greater.
“We are expecting that thousands of dead bodies may be found within a few days,” Shekhar Chandra Das, deputy head of the government’s disaster management office, told AFP.
“We have not been able to collect information about casualties in many remote and impassable places due to the disruption to communications,” he said.
The irony , of course, is that these people have very little to do with burning fossil fuels. Never have so many been harmed by so few?
Meanwhile, the United Nations’ top climate change official has warned that the world will be in “deep trouble” if it fails to agree on any solutions at next month’s UN ministerial conference in Bali. Just how bad have the effects of climate change been so far? The UNEP has a factsheet on this here, which also talks about adverse changes in the hydrological cycle:
Rising temperatures are already accelerating the hydrological cycle. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, becomes less stable and produces more precipitation, particularly in the form of heavy rain bursts. Greater heat also speeds up evaporation. The net effect of these changes in the cycling of water will be a decline in the quantity and quality of freshwater supplies in all major regions. Meanwhile, wind patterns and storm tracks are likely to change. The intensity (but not the frequency) of tropical cyclones are expected to increase, with larger peak wind speeds and heavier rains.
I also came across this article which points out that the American media has been (unsurprisingly, in my opinion) quiet about the cyclone. It goes on to talk about a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for a New American Security, which connects the dots between natural disasters, socio-economic problems and latent extremism to make a compelling case for why the US should be taking cyclones in Bangladesh very seriously.
Meanwhile aid efforts are on and according to an official from the UN World Food Programme the most urgent needs are food, water purification tablets, and medicines. Here is the emergency appeal issued by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which is working in the area. You can also make an online donation towards the relief efforts here.