The world is set to face 1.5 disasters a day — 560 a year — by 2030, as humans put themselves on a “spiral of self-destruction” by heating up the climate and ignoring risk, pushing millions more people into poverty, the UN said yesterday.
In the past two decades, between 350 and 500 medium-sized to major disasters were recorded annually, but governments are “fundamentally” underestimating their true impact on lives and livelihoods, a biennial UN report on disasters said.
“Raising the alarm by speaking the truth is not only necessary, but crucial,” said Mami Mizutori, head of the UN Office for Disaster