ITS EDUCATION ASIA ARTICLE

Early-warning systems protecting more lives

By Danny Harrington, MD ITS Education Asia

The UN has reported on statistics which show that although extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in our global heating crisis, and although this means growing economic losses, deaths are actually reducing. With better early warning systems making information available earlier to more places, plus more countries having implemented disaster management planning, deaths have reduced globally from 50,000+ per year in the 1970s to less than 20,000 today. As climatic disasters make up over half of all natural disasters, 45% of deaths and 75% of costs, they are a major area for us to work towards mitigating and yet another reason why we should be working to stop global heating.