Did climate change cause Typhoon Haiyan? - Features - Al Jazeera English
Finger pointing is the most popular action for the people who are feeling powerless to do anything to help the victims of Typhoon Yolanda. We've seen the typhoon being used to the political advantage of certain people and people blaming developed countries for causing climate change and consequently the most intense tropical cyclone to ever make landfall. We've really seen people say just about anything, and most of it is just out of frustration about the lack of preparedness for this disaster, the powerlessness people feel to get aid to people fast enough, and our need to have a reason why this typhoon happened in the first place.
First let's look again at some of the stories that have come out this week with people assigning blame to others. We saw Nederev Sano, chief representative for the Philippines at the UN Climate Talks in Warsaw, blame climate change for the typhoon. He called for nations to collectively take action on climate change. He was careful not to assign blame to any specific countries or even on developed countries. He acknowledges that it is every countries' responsibility equally to act on climate change.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/world/asia/typhoon-in-philippines-casts-long-shadow-over-un-talks-on-climate-treaty.html?hp&_r=1&
We also saw Stuart Varney commend Australia for backing out of talks for climate reparations to developing countries affected by climate change.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/11/13/foxs-heartless-response-to-the-philippines-call/196882
We saw a police chief who reported to the media that he estimated the death toll to be more than 10,000 removed from his post. Obviously a political move and punishment for "leaking" the severity of the situation to the international media. We will see if he gets his job back when the death toll surpasses 10,000.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/11/14/philippines_death_toll_police_chief_who_provied_10k_estimate_ousted.html
We've also seen NGOs and foreign military be able to deliver aid where the Philippine government has been too slow.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/typhoon-haiyan-devastation-slows-aid-efforts-2013111573115466504.html
Let's put this natural disaster in perspective. Here are the deadliest natural disasters in world history. As you can see, as bad as Yolanda was, it doesn't even make the list. In today's media age, we are seeing spectacular and graphic imagery of the destruction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
The Philippines is actually very lucky that Yolanda did not hit Manila. Manila is extremely vulnerable to flooding as we have seen in 2009 and 2013, and wind damage would have been catastrophic. We would be talking about hundreds of thousands dead. It is unfortunate that the people affected are on relatively small and remote islands. They have no way of getting aid they need from other islands. It is one of the reasons that the Philippines is so disaster prone. If the country was connected to the mainland, we would be seeing aid arrive much sooner.
Typhoon Yolanda cannot be directly attributed to climate change. We are seeing increasing evidence across the board that the frequency of extreme weather events is indeed increasing. The likelihood that these events might occur at any given time is increasing. Climate change simply increases the likelihood that weather events are more extreme. Typhoon Yolanda was so strong because of the extremely warm water in the Philippine Sea. Because the worldwide human population is increasing rapidly, it is becoming more likely that people are going to be affected by extreme weather events. Read for yourself. If you can't see that it's happening and that human activity is accelerating the greenhouse effect, you should probably get out and make some of your own observations.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130905-extremeweatherandclimateevents.html
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/23/climate-change-carbon-emissions-ipcc-extreme-weather
It is ludicrous and hypocritical for people in the Philippines to be demanding reparations from the governments of developed nations. Developed nations are the people sending most of the food, clean water, and clothes that the typhoon victims need to survive right now. People don't have these things right now because most of them were living in unsustainable situations that were completely dependent on fossil fuel consumption before the typhoon happened. Many of these people have practically no direct connection with a land base for subsistence. The people that were living sustainably with a connection to a land base and do have clean water and food are now being forced to give it to others that don't have it. The Philippines is a net importer of food and has serious issues with clean drinking water, a recipe for a real disaster.
Developing countries subsidize fossil fuel consumption just as much as developed countries. Corporate welfare exists everywhere. It's a problem that stems from a culture of carbon consumption, a sense of entitlement, and exploitation. All countries are equally at fault for holding future generations hostage with unsustainable practices and for making so many people so vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Typhoon Yolanda is just the tip of the iceberg. We really haven't seen anything yet. We are talking about the likely possibility that 2 billion people will be displaced this century. We really don't have any time left to point fingers. It's a massive number of climate refugees that will be extremely desperate for survival. Yes, it is madness.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/11/aid-eludes-many-philippine-storm-survivors-201311145341242571.html
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