Writing on the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres highlighted how natural disasters were ‘often supercharged by the climate crisis,’ leading to heightened frequency and intensity. He focused on the impact of natural disasters on children, reporting that the number of children affected by flooding worldwide has ‘reached the highest levels in more than three decades.’
In a press release, the UN also reported that natural disasters were disproportionately affecting children from impoverished families, with poor financial situations restricting how children recover to ‘both disasters and the consequences of climate change.’ Guterres claimed “children face serious repercussions including disrupted education, nutrition and healthcare,” and called on greater investment in disaster detection, prevention and mitigation as global warming greatly increased the threat to children posed by natural disasters.
Whilst calling for greater use of multi-hazard early detection systems and ‘disaster-resilient schools,’ the Secretary-General also emphasised that ‘children are more than victims of disaster,’ and called for the enabling of young people to ‘take part in decision-making to reduce risks for all.’
“They have a huge stake in the future,” he stressed, “and their ideas and innovations can help to reduce risk and build resilience.”
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The arrival of the annual day to focus attention on natural disasters comes as Hurricane Milton wreaks havoc across Southeastern US states, marking the second hurricane in as many weeks to hit the region, and leaving 1.8 million without power in the state of Florida. US President Joe Biden criticised those who sought to deny a link between climate change and the hurricanes’ severity, arguing that someone would ‘have to be brain-dead’ to deny the impact of the climate emergency. He reminded his audience that ‘warming oceans [are] powering more intense rains’ and that storms were ‘going to get stronger.’ By contrast, many influential Republican politicians shared baseless conspiracy theories that the hurricanes were ‘engineered’ by the Biden Administration to interfere in the 2024 election, whilst Trump’s Project 2025 calls for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be broken up and downsized.
According to Yahoo News, scientists have pointed to the rapid development of Storm Milton – which progressed from a Category One to a Category Five hurricane in less than 24 hours – as an example of a ‘worrying trend.’ Global climate change is not just fuelling more powerful storms, according to experts, but ‘doing so more quickly.’
Concluding his address on Sunday, Antonio Guterres wrote that ‘we owe it to future generations to shape a safer, more resilient tomorrow.’ As the US gears up for one of its most consequential Presidential Elections, the safety of future generations of Americans will hang in the balance.
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Support World Vision, a charity focused on providing disaster and emergency response for children, here.
Learn more about and support the Disasters Emergency Committee here.
Find more charities that help combat natural disasters here.
Learn how to support victims of Hurricane Milton here.
Support the Democrats to stop Trump’s destructive Project 2025 agenda here.
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