In recent years, serious decisions are made at
the local and international level on climate change and its impact on natural
disasters, which are more numerous and more serious over the years. Exploring
their mutual influences, scientists worldwide are mostly engaged in the issue
of the link between the increase in average temperature of the earth and the
frequency (intensity) of natural disasters, with a special emphasis on
hydrologic and meteorological disasters. To be able to analyze such influence,
it is needed a solid knowledge of climate changes and natural disasters, as it
is well known that global warming does not affect equally all kinds of those disasters,
taking into account the origin of their occurrence. However, it should be noted
that natural disasters have always existed, and that climate changes can only
affect the increase in their number, intensity and consequences that they cause
to people and their material goods.
Without going into
multiply multidimensional various issues of climate change, it should be noted
that climate changes are caused by emissions of different gases that directly
or indirectly exacerbate the natural process by which infrared radiation is captured
in the atmosphere, which causes heating the lithosphere, hydrosphere and
atmosphere. It is a fact that speaks of the temperature increase of land, sea
and air causes the disorder of certain natural processes, thereby contributing to
the creation of more frequent floods, hurricanes, landslides and so on. Therefore,
global warming that is characterized by increasing average temperatures on
earth can be direct/indirect cause of the increase in severity (number and
intensity) of natural disasters. In order to examine this possibility, it is
important to examine the effects of elevated temperatures of land, sea and air
on the processes that contribute to the above-mentioned increase in severity of
natural disasters. Besides the increase in the average temperature of the
lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, which are direct consequences of
climate changes, it is important to analyze its indirect effects as well, such
as increasing the level of the oceans and seas affected by the rapid melting of
large glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. The aforementioned process also
affects the natural disasters, but in different ways than the direct effects of
climate change.
A large number of research
studies worldwide have identified and demonstrated the interconnectedness of
global warming and natural disasters using different statistical models. For
example, if we start from the fact that the strength of hurricanes is based on
heat of the oceans and seas, which is later transformed in mechanical strength,
it is easy to examine the relationship between changes in ocean temperature and
hurricane strength over the past few years. Of course, it is necessary to bear
in mind that the characteristics of a hurricane do not only depend on the water
temperature, but also on other factors that we will not consider in the paper.
Therefore,
this paper will analyze the phenomenological structure of climate changes and
natural disasters, for further consideration of the relevant facts about their
interrelation. Namely, in order to link those two phenomena it should consider
each separately. Therefore, the paper will consider the implications of climate
changes on natural disasters with special reference to their impact on specific
species, the intensity and the increase in their number.
The climate changes
Across the Earth, climate
changes and its serious consequences are discussed on a daily basis. And what
exactly are climate changes and what they represent, it is best explained by
the process of warming the Earth. Namely, daily solar energy penetrates the
atmosphere in the form of light waves. Part of this energy heats the Earth, and
part in the form of infrared waves back into space. Normally, part of the
infrared radiation usually is captured by the atmosphere allowing the
temperature that stays on Earth is within acceptable limits. However, the
problem we now face is that the thin layer of air layer became thicker due to
the large amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause the greenhouse
effect. Having become thicker, now that layer retains a large amount of
infrared radiation that would otherwise have left the atmosphere, causing the
temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans begin to rise.According to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency – EPA, climate changes are a significant changes in climatic
conditions, such as temperature, precipitation or winds, which last for a
decade or longer, and may result from: natural processes within the climate
system (changes in ocean circulation), changes in the intensity of solar
radiation, or human activities that affect the composition of the atmosphere
(through the burning of fossil fuels) and the land surface (deforestation, urbanization,
desertification). In
addition, unlike climate changes, term the „global warming“ represents the
tropospheric temperature increase thus contributing to changes in global
weather patterns that emerge due to increased emissions of so-called greenhouse
gases, mainly carbon dioxide and methane.
Climate changes represent a serious threat to
the basic elements of life for people in the world, such as access to drinking
water, food production, food and land use. They are multiple (from drought to
floods) and multidimensional (local to global) risks that have short, medium
and long-term aspects and unknown outcomes. The signatories to the UN Convention
on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol 1997 have accepted that climate changes
carry many potential hazards, such as sea level rise, increased frequency of
storms and floods, the spread of infectious diseases, decline in biodiversity
and reducing the availability of food and water. These impacts are a threat to
human life and sustainable development.
Za citiranje koristiti: Cvetković,
V. (2014). The impacts of climate changes on the risk of natural
disasters. Skopje: International
yearbook of the Faculty of security (51-60).
