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Millions of people are finding their lives disrupted by climate change, which is leading to more severe weather, a situation which is now being worsened by the novel coronavirus, according to findings from a new World Meteorological Organization report released this week.
Many scientists say severe weather is getting worse thanks to climate change. As a storm moves across two-thirds of the US today, the weather is causing not only delays but accidents and injuries.
Severe weather will continue across the US this week, bringing the threat of tornadoes. Hard-hit Nashville, which already saw earlier than normal tornado activity last week, will be under threat again for the next three days.
Severe weather has damaged homes and businesses, disrupting both the lives and livelihoods of people in many areas.
As coronavirus cases mount in the US, it is starting to have an effect on the US economy, and experts say this is only the beginning. It’s going to get a lot worse.
Officials are putting pressure on companies to allow employees to work from home.
But what do people do that don’t have jobs? People that are searching for “job openings near me” may find their job hunt delayed, as employers may wait before filling open positions until the threat from the coronavirus outbreak has lessened.
President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are planning an economic relief package to help Americans whose livelihoods are endangered by the coronavirus outbreak.
Possibilities that Republicans could introduce, according to President Trump, include “a possible payroll tax cut or relief, substantial relief — very substantial relief. That’s a big — that’s a big number.”
“We’re also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they’re not going to ever miss a paycheck,” Trump said.
“We’re going to be working with companies and small companies, large companies — a lot of companies — so that they don’t get penalized for something that’s not their fault,” President Trump added. “It’s not their fault, it’s not our country’s fault.”
President Trump added that they will be looking at ways to help some of the industries hardest hit by the coronavirus, including the airline, travel, and hotel industries.
President Trump is also expected to put increased pressure on the Federal Reserve to further reduce interest rates.
The State of the Climate report released this week by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) showing that changes to weather are having a profound disrupting effect on millions of people around the globe.
The global-average temperature was 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial era, which makes the years 2010-2019 the warmest decade on record in the history of the planet.
Not only that, but the WMO released a previous report in January finding that 2019 was the second-warmest year on record, following 2016 which saw a strong El Niño event that heated the globe.
One of the biggest changes has been that of hunger. After declining for most of the decade, hunger is now rising again around the world, and this latest report says climate change is the primary cause.
In 2018, over 820 million people around the world were suffering from hunger, the largest amount since 2010.
Climate change is causing climate variability, going from extremes such as exceptional drought, which is then followed by extremely heavy rainfall. Irregular weather and climate patterns are leading to displacement, death from natural weather disasters, crop failures, the worst locust swarms in 25 years, all of which in turn is disrupting the food supply.
As a result, over 22 million people were severely food insecure in the Horn of Africa alone by the end of 2019.
The report also found that up to an estimated 22 million people were displaced by weather disasters in 2019, a rise in high-impact weather events by over 25% compared to 2018. Flooding and storms were the largest type of weather disaster.
During the same time, all-time record temperatures occurred in several countries across Europe, leaning to at least 1462 heat-related deaths.
Australia also sought record warm temperatures and extreme drought, the result of which were massive wildfires, which also sparked in Siberia and the Amazon rain forest.
