Storms and floods

Read the information below before watching the video above.

Extreme weather events are one of the most obvious ways in which the climate crisis affects human health. Extreme weather events (storms, floods, drought, and heatwaves) are already increasing at 1°C of warming, and they are expected to increase in both frequency and severity over the coming decades (IPCC Chapter 19).

Floods and storms affect health directly, causing injuries and deaths and increasing exposure to infectious diseases. They also destroy homes and communities, displacing people, ruining livelihoods, disrupting education, and exacting a heavy toll on mental health.

Watch the video above for a description of one flood event in India.

References:

D. McCoy and N.Watts. 2015. Climate Change: Health Impacts and Opportunities a Summary and Discussion of the IPCC Working Group 2 Report.

IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1132 pp.

For more information and further reading, see the ‘See Also’ section below.