Najam on Unnatural Natural Disasters
A review on the economic and human costs of natural disasters and extreme weather events in the year 2014 published in The Energy Collective, quotes the work of Prof. Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, that had earlier been published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The article reported on the findings from a new report by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, which finds that 980 loss-related natural catastrophes were registered in 2014 and 92% of the loss-related natural catastrophes were due to weather events.” Roman Kilisek, in his article in The Energy Collective, points out that these findings highlight the earlier research of the Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston Univeristy who, writing for the World Economic Forum’s Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015 in November 2014, had drawn attention towards the ominous links between global climate change and trends in extreme weather events.
The article quotes this passage from Dean Adil Najam:
“Severe weather events are changing perceptions about climate change. However, when we think of climate change we think less about its already evident impacts and instead more about emissions, particularly around energy production and carbon. Unfortunately, this means most climate change discussion gets reduced to a discussion about carbon management. Carbon management is undoubtedly the essential challenge in mitigation, but in a world defined by climate impacts and adaptation – and that’s the world we currently live in – it’s not enough to focus on carbon management alone.”
The full article can be read at The Energy Collective.