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Global Issues

Interconnected Disaster Risks

United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security
UNU_Interconnected_Disaster_Risks_COVER

Our world today is facing an unprecedented level of extreme events impacting people and nature, evident in the ever-increasing frequency of severe weather events, epidemics and human-made disasters. In 2020/2021, the world witnessed a number of record-breaking disasters that showed us clearer than ever before how interconnected we are. This report analyses 10 disastrous events that occurred in 2020/2021 and explains that these events are interconnected with each other, with other larger, underlying societal processes, and with our behaviors and actions. Since the risks associated with these disastrous events are interconnected in their root causes, influences, and impacts, thinking in fragmented, isolated and insular ways is no longer tenable. Instead, we must find integrated solutions that can tackle multiple root causes and emerging risks while enhancing our capacities to prepare and respond to future disasters.

The report analyses 10 interconnected disasters that took place in 2020/2021:

  1. Amazon Wildfires – Wildfires fueled by global appetite
  2. Arctic Heatwave – Spiraling into a climate disaster
  3. Beirut Explosion – When the global community abandons ship
  4. Central Viet Nam Floods – When being prepared is no longer enough
  5. Chinese Paddlefish Extinction – The fish that survived the dinosaur extinction but not humankind
  6. COVID-19 Pandemic – How a pandemic is showing us the value of biodiversity
  7. Cyclone Amphan – When a cyclone and a pandemic combine
  8. Desert Locust outbreak – How manageable risks spin out of control
  9. Great Barrier Reef bleaching – Losing more than a natural wonder
  10. Texas cold wave – A preventable catastrophe?

Download the report here.

 

This description was excerpted from collections.unu.edu.

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