Report: Extreme weather’s toll is millions of deaths, trillions in damage

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released an updated report Monday, May 22, on the toll extreme weather has taken on the world. According to the report, from 1970 to 2021, extreme weather, climate and water-related events have killed more than 2 million people and caused $4.3 trillion in damage.

“The USA alone incurred US$1.7 trillion, accounting for 39% of economic losses worldwide in the 51 years,” the WMO said in a statement on the extreme weather report. “But Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States suffered a disproportionately high cost in relation to the size of their economies.”

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In the statement, the WMO said the economic losses from extreme weather “have soared.” The organization added “improved early warnings and coordinated disaster management” have led to fewer deaths.

According to the report, over 90% of extreme weather deaths happened in developing countries. The WMO statement touched on Cyclone Mocha which devastated communities in Myanmar and Bangladesh earlier in May.

“It caused widespread devastation in Myanmar and Bangladesh, impacting the poorest of the poor,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in the statement. “In the past, both Myanmar and Bangladesh suffered death tolls of tens and even hundreds of thousands of people.”