Since 2006, the magazine time Illustrated its cover headline “Worry a Lot” about climate change with the image of a polar bear looking for a piece of ice floe to jump onto, this animal has become the icon of the climate crisis – “ it is almost impossible not to associate them with climate change,” describes this research on the symbolism of the animal. Perhaps a plausible update would be to move from the polar bear to a mile-long line of humans fleeing a hurricane, flood, or drought. Even if it’s in the United States.
This is not free. The saturation of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases causes the planet – and particularly the sea – to overheat to dangerous levels. These oceans fuel super-destructive hurricanes like Hélène or Milton which hit everyone: the world’s largest economy is incapable of protecting itself despite its resources from the force of climate change. Milton alone forced three million people to flee to Florida in one fell swoop.
Global warming caused by gas emissions from human activities now makes devastating hurricanes twice as likely, conclude scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA). This week, something unprecedented was observed in satellite records: three hurricanes active at the same time in the North Atlantic already until October: Leslie, Milton and Kirk – whose final phase bordered the Spain and left wind gusts of 200 km/h. h–.
Millions of people are forced to leave their homes each year due to extremely severe weather events caused by climate change. Milton’s crisis forced a shift from images of animals in danger to images of the first world affected by the impact, predicted and realized, of the climate crisis.
China, Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh…
The World Bank estimated in 2021 that climate change “could force 216 million people to be displaced by 2050”. Between 2013 and 2023, this phenomenon has accumulated 250 million displaced people worldwide, according to the Internal Displacement Observatory (IDMC). The World Bank itself – under the presidency of David R. Malpass, nominated by Donald Trump – explained that “reducing global gas emissions and supporting green, resilient and inclusive development could reduce climate migration by up to 80%. “.
In 2022 alone, 31 million people will be displaced by climate. 7.5 of them are specifically due to cyclones. The following year, in 2023, there were an additional 20 million (including 9.8 because of floods and 9.5 because of storms).
While it is true that the United States “generally records one of the highest numbers of people displaced by natural disasters in the region” – 500,000 people in 2022 and 200,000 in 2023 – according to the IDMC, these two years The countries where the largest number of people displaced by natural disasters were China – with more than seven million –, the Philippines – seven million –, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Somalia and Bangladesh.
A report from the US Treasury Department said that 2022 weather disasters caused by climate change (not just hurricanes) had cost the country $165 billion “not including the impact on lives lost, the burden on health of the system and on families displaced by climate. crisis.”
The United States has the greatest economic power in the world to address this impact, with a gross domestic product of $27 trillion, according to the World Bank. In Miami Beach alone, since 2017, they have had a budget of $500 million to try to resist the onslaught of the sea by raising the level of roads, installing pumping stations and improving the water supply system. rainwater evacuation.
It is true that many cities in this area cannot even have a budget with these characteristics. Florida is the sixth most economically unequal state in the country, according to the Gini coefficient, and also has a governor, Ron de Santis, who removed any reference to climate change from his legislation while declaring: “We make reasonable our approach to energy and expel the agenda of radical green fanatics.
If you look at the countries most displaced by climate disasters, China has a GDP of 17 trillion, the Philippines has an economy of 437 billion, like Bangladesh. Pakistan has a GDP of $374 billion.
More than a year and a half of warning on sea temperatures
Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, said Oct. 6, “The high heat content of the ocean provides a hurricane with a constant source of fuel. » And how does this heat content increase? Most of the excess heat trapped by the “increasing amount of greenhouse gases” remains in the sea.
Researchers have been warning about extreme heat in the oceans for more than a year and a half. “Uncharted territory,” they called it in April 2023. The trend did not abate in the following months, which began to make meteorologists’ scales obsolete. In 2024, the temperature of the North Atlantic in general and the Gulf of Mexico in particular predicted a dangerous year of hurricanes. Recent weeks have brought the number of hurricanes at this stage to nine while the 1991-2020 average is 5.5.
