Yahoo News 12 Dec 07;
Global warming caused a record number of natural disasters across the world in 2007, up nearly 20 percent from a year earlier, the International Federation of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
"As of 10 October 2007, the Federation had already recorded 410 disasters, 56 percent of which were weather-related, which is consistent with the trend of rising numbers of climate change-related disasters," the IFRC said in its "World Disasters Report".
In 2006, the IFRC recorded 427 natural disasters, a rise of 70 percent in the two years since 2004.
"These figures confirm the trend of recent years," IFRC Secretary General Markku Niskala told a press conference.
Over the last 10 years, the number of natural disasters rose by 40 percent from the previous decade, while the number of deaths caused by disasters doubled to 1.2 million people from 600,000, the report said.
The number of people on average affected by natural disasters each year rose to 270 million from 230 million over the same period.
"Better reporting of smaller disasters partially explains these increases. However, more severe disasters are also on the increase," the IFRC report said.
The report warned that vulnerable groups in society such as women, disabled people, the elderly and ethnic minorities face extra hardships when coping with natural disasters.
The IFRC cited examples of blind, deaf or paralysed people who may be unable to flee danger on their own, or people unable to follow evacuation plans because they have been excluded from school and thus cannot read.
In the December 2004 tsunami that devastated southeast Asia, three times as many women were killed than men because they tended to be at home when the waves struck, noted Mohammed Mukhier, one of the report's authors.
The report also said that in some instances, minority groups like the Dalits in India and the Tamils in Sri Lanka did not receive equal amounts of aid after the tsunami due to political, ethnic or religious reasons.
"Aid agencies need to work to change attitudes, develop inclusion and advocate on behalf of marginalised groups," Niskala said.
"Discrimination thrives in the shadows, so we need to chase those shadows away," he added.
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