Millions affected by climate change, extreme
weather in the Caribbean: New UN report
By Nelson A. King
A new report by the United
Nations’ World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) finds that
climate-related and geophysical
events resulted in the loss
of 312,000 lives and directly
affected more than 277 million
people in Latin America and
the Caribbean.
The WMO study, “State of the
Climate in Latin America and
the Caribbean 2020,” released
on Tuesday, says that extreme
weather and climate change are
threatening the entire region,
“from the heights of Andean
peaks to low-lying islands and
mighty river basins.”
It says that increasing temperatures,
changing rainfall
patterns, storms and retreating
glaciers have all had a profound
impact on human health and
safety, food, water, energy security
and the environment.
“Latin America and the Caribbean
(LAC) is among the
regions most challenged by
extreme hydro-meteorological
events,” said WMO Secretary-
General Professor Petteri Taalas
said in a statement to mark the
release of the document.
Taalas noted the impacts
include “water and energy-related
Caribbean L 22 ife, AUGUST 20-26, 2021
shortages, agricultural
losses, displacement and compromised
health and safety, all
compounding challenges from
the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Concerns about fires and the
loss of forests are also raised in
the document.
WMO said almost half of the
area of the LAC region is covered
by forests, representing
about 57 per cent of the world’s
remaining primary forests and
storing an estimated 104 gigatons
of carbon.
“Fires and deforestation are
now threatening one of the
world’s largest carbon sinks,
with far-reaching and long-lasting
repercussions,” the WMO
Secretary-General said.
The report says 2020 was
among the three warmest years
in Central America and the Caribbean,
and the second warmest
year in South America.
Maximum temperatures at
some stations showed recordbreaking
values with temperatures
up to 10 °C above normal,
the report says.
It says widespread drought
across Latin America and the
Caribbean had significant
impacts, including lowering
rivers level, which have hampered
inland shipping routes,
reduced crop yields and food
production, leading to worsening
food insecurity in many
areas.
The study warns that forest
loss is an important contributor
to climate change due to
carbon dioxide release, stating
that between 2000 and 2016,
nearly 55 million hectares of
forest were lost, constituting
more than 91 percent of forest
losses worldwide.
The increased rate of wildfires
in 2020 caused irreversible
damages to ecosystems, including
adverse impacts to vital
ecosystem services and livelihoods
dependent on them, the
report finds.
Fifteen-year-old Benson Etienne and his family escaped
before their house collapsed in the hurricane-hit Marsh Harbour,
in Abaco Island, Bahamas. UNICEF/Moreno Gonza