It all started with a record-breaking snowfall costing about 1.2 billion Pounds in damages and grounding all forms of transportation in the Spanish city of Madrid for a couple of days. The snow which was reported to be as high as 60 cm in some places did not just cost that huge sum of money in damages but took about 4 lives along as reported in some media.source
North Wales and North-West England also experienced their wettest period ever in January in an extreme weather phenomenon known as Storm Christoph. The period brought massive flooding, snow, and strong wind across various communities with some communities being evacuated in an emergency. The phenomenon which was reported to have cost insurance losses of up to 120 million Pounds can be viewed in pictures on the Guardian website here.
Texas, United State had its fair share of the extreme weather event in February 2021 when a raging winter storm caused the collapse of the power grid that supplies electricity to the entire state to fall. The multiplier effects of the collapsed grid include a shortage in the supply of food, water, and heat, with the temperature dropping to as low as -13 degrees in some places. The event was reported to have cost the state an estimated amount of $80 to $130 billion in money, and about 151 lives losses. source
It was a case of an annual sandstorm from Mongolia's Gobi desert turning the Beijing sky in China orange with flights and schools grounded due to poor visibility and terrible, record-breaking air pollution. Even though there are no official figures of what the storm could have cost the Chinese government in monetary terms, it is certain that the closure of schools, businesses, and the grounding of flights would have had some cost implications either directly or otherwise. Some of the images from the phenomena can be seen here.
Perhaps one of the major events relating to flooding from extreme weather is the one that took place in West Germany not long ago. Images and video clips of the event that circulated on social media will draw tears even from the most emotionally strong person. Lives were lost, infrastructures and properties worth millions in Euros were destroyed with the government approving an initial sum of 400 million Euros for the recovery package. More about the flood can be read here.
There's more
The above are just a few of the events relating to extreme weather in certain parts of the world. Most parts of the world had a fair share of events relating to extreme weather and ranges from the record-breaking amounts of precipitation leading to flooding, record-breaking temperature, and heat waves causing different degrees of wildfires. The world's glacier deposit has shrunk significantly as well.
All in all, extreme weather events have cost the world billions in US dollars and the amount is expected to double in less than three decades.source
Everything points to one thing
Climate change!
The planet would have remained in the ice age and we would not have existed in that condition. A big thanks to greenhouse gases for being able to absorb some of the reflected radiation from the sun after they have struck the earth. However, it was all good until we started having too much concentration of these gases in our atmosphere as a result of anthropological activities.
Several investigations have been made and reports have emerged to prove beyond reasonable scientific doubts that the more of these greenhouse gases we emit into our atmosphere, the more the global temperature will continue to rise and the temperature has the solitary ability to influence other climatic factors.
Conspiracy!
For every 12, there must be a Judas. That goes the popular saying.
Just as many people do not believe in the whole COVID19 and vaccine brouhaha, there are people that believe there is a major conspiracy behind climate change and those advocating for its mitigation. Many even go as far as opining that there is a more sinister plan going on. Their argument borders around the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not being more unusual than what it used to be. The truth is, I am not writing this post to debate or argue with anyone on the existence of climate change. The evidence is overwhelming and humanity might have it worse.
Scientists have been advocating for the mitigation of climate change for several years now. Yet, humanity keeps releasing more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Now, the bad news is that many scientists believe that the rubicon has been crossed from their investigations and no amount of effort can reverse climate change.
Do we give up and live like there is no tomorrow or we'll rather die trying?
Personally, I will continue to live with the consciousness of the environment in mind as I have always lived. Perhaps we might not be able to stop the erratic nature of climate but reduce the impact at which the weather events bite.
If you are able to make it this far, thank you for your audience.