Tag: Climate Disaster

The world’s insurance bill from natural disasters this year: $115 billion

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Extreme weather events have caused an estimated $115 billion in insured financial losses around the world this year according to Swiss Re, the Zurich-based reinsurance giant. That’s 42 percent higher than the 10-year average of $81 billion. The firm estimates that $50 billion to $65 billion of the total losses are a result of Hurricane Ian, the category 4 storm that pummeled parts of Florida’s west coast in late September with torrential rain, a 10-foot storm storm surge, and winds topping 140 miles per hour. Swiss Re ranks Ian as the second costliest natural disaster ever, in terms of insurance losses, after Hurricane Katrina struck south Louisiana in 2005.

— source grist.org | Dec 02, 2022

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Climate change protester jailed for 15 months in Australia

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Last Friday, a young woman who briefly blocked one lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a protest over governments’ refusal to halt climate change was jailed for 15 months and then denied bail for an appeal. This chilling punishment highlights the resort by Australia’s governments—Labor and Liberal-National alike—to draconian anti-protest laws to try to suppress opposition to their pro-business agenda. This includes protecting the fossil fuel super-profits being made by the coal, oil and gas conglomerates on the back of the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

The jailing of Deanna “Violet” Coco is designed to send a wider message of intimidation directed against any protests that cut across the interests of the corporate elite. She was the first person to be sentenced under laws introduced by the New South Wales (NSW) Liberal-National government in April that impose fines of up to $22,000 and jail terms of up to two years for protests on roads, rail lines, tunnels, bridges and industrial estates.

— source wsws.org | Dec 6, 2022

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How Military Spending Fuels Environmental Damage

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This report, as you know, is coming on the back of big discussions at this COP, which we just heard about in this earlier section, about the need that the poorest countries, who are most impacted by climate change, are saying that we need finance to both adapt to climate change and to deal with the loss and damage. And we hear John Kerry — you were just quoting the earlier clip — saying, “Name me a nation that has trillions of dollars to deal with this,” except — basically saying washing his hands of the situation and refusing to accept some responsibility.

And yet, what this report shows is that there is trillions of dollars. The richest countries, which are called Annex II countries under the U.N. climate talks, have dedicated $9.45 trillion to military spending in the last eight years, between 2013 and 2021. And that is 30 times more than they have dedicated to climate finance. And they’re still not delivering on their promises to deliver the $100 billion a year that was promised way back in 2009 now. So, what we’re seeing, firstly, in this report is that there is resources, but it’s been dedicated to military spending.

https://www.tni.org/en/publication/climate-collateral

— source democracynow.org | Nov 16, 2022

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NASA scientist arrested for taking part in global climate protests

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A NASA scientist and three others were arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday after chaining themselves to the doors of a Chase Bank office building.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has invested more money in fossil fuels than any other bank, according to a 2020 report from the Sierra Club and other climate advocacy organizations. In addition to calling for immediate action to address the climate crisis, the protestors on Wednesday were calling for the company to divest from coal, oil, and gas.

Peter Kalmus, who studies biological systems and climate change at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, spoke to a crowd that assembled shortly after another protestor helped Kalmus chain himself to the handle of the bank’s glass door.

— source businessinsider.in | Apr 7, 2022

Climate Change Supercharges Storms

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in Florida, where authorities say hundreds may be dead after Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday along the state’s southwestern coast as a powerful Category 4 storm, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the area. Ian was about 500 miles wide when it crashed into Florida with a 30-foot-wide eye wall and hurricane-force winds that extended 40 miles from the center. Satellite images show the storm engulfing the entire state. High winds and storm surges devastated coastal communities. Some storm surges were 12 feet high. Some cities saw more than a foot of rainfall. More than two-and-a-half million have lost power as we broadcast. Many are also without water. Rescue teams are working in the dangerous conditions to find people trapped in their homes.

But the most important story right now is what’s happening down in Southwest Florida, as you heard from the sheriff of Lee County, where hundreds of people are confirmed dead from this storm, with the unbelievable storm surge that came through, several feet of water in major cities in Southwest Florida, like Naples and Fort Myers. It’s just been devastating. And we don’t know the full extent of the damage yet, because it’s just now daylight, and it’s just now safe enough, perhaps, to go outside for people and for these emergency crews to go out and assess the damages.

— source democracynow.org | Sep 29, 2022

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How Capitalism, Colonialism & Imperialism Fuel Climate Crisis

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Climate strike. That’s the cry of youth climate activists today to urge world leaders to do more to confront the climate emergency. This comes as a third of Pakistan is underwater, severe drought in the Horn of Africa has brought Somalia to the brink of famine, and Puerto Rico remains largely without power after a devastating hurricane.

Today, the climate strike, especially in New York, is very significant because we’ve just had Climate Week New York, we’ve just had the U.N. General Assembly happening this week, and, as kind of usual, there hasn’t been enough happening. There have been a lot of incredible things that have happened, like, for example, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia gave an incredible address on the floor of the U.N., really calling out how much kind of Global North nations are still inflicting imperialism and control over Global South nations. And also we saw Vanuatu be first nation-state to call on the floor of the U.N. for an international fossil fuel treaty to be signed. So, that means a treaty that would

— source democracynow.org | Sep 23, 2022

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Climate Crisis Impact Worse in Black Cities Facing Disinvestment

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as we look at this crisis of climate, class and race coming together, one of the poorest states in this country, a city that’s over 80% African American, Jackson, Mississippi. More than 180,000 residents are on their third day without running water. We’re talking about water to drink. We’re talking about water to flush the toilet. We’re talking water to bathe in. Officials say the crisis could last indefinitely. the mayor, saying that the state is defunding majority-Black cities and mayors.

Let me describe a little bit of where I am. I’m currently in New Orleans. When the mayor issued the warning on Saturday for folks to evacuate, we took the situation very seriously and started organizing on a regional level our allies to start being able to deliver water to the city of Jackson. As the mayor noted, you know, we are not new to this situation, unfortunately. So we could anticipate that we were going to need some resources, independent of what the state was going to be able to offer and deliver, and in our case, not being — at least in our immediate community, not being reliant on the timeline, particularly of the state government, to deliver vital resources to our community. Too often they’ve declared emergencies and then not delivered, or not delivered in a substantial amount of time to actually help people on the ground. So, our organization, along

— source democracynow.org | Aug 31, 2022

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Getting arrested because scientists are not being listened to

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Peter Kalmus and other climate scientists chained themselves to JPMorgan Chase bank in Los Angeles, California in protest of fossil fuels.
Peter Kalmus
climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

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