World Environment Day - Environmental insecurity amidst the global economic, social, and health insecurity

Analysis by Jana Al Hassanieh, Staff Writer

June 5th, 2020

Apocalyptic 2020: Heat waves, zombie fires, locust attacks, and cyclones amidst COVID-19 outbreak

Can 2020 get any worse?

Heat Waves

Due to global warming, 2020 is expected to be another record-breaking year for heat waves. 

Russia, one of the coldest regions on Earth, has been hit by a heat wave that threatens to melt permafrost. This heat wave has caused devastating wildfires including zombie fires as well, to be further discussed in the following sections. On May 26th, the Russian News Agency reported around 64 wildfires, spanning a total of 13000 hectares (130 square kilometers), declaring a state of emergency over four Russian regions. These Arctic heatwaves have brought upon these regions major broken ecosystem cycles, including early vegetation blossoming, early river-ice breaking, and premature insect emergence and breeding patterns.

As well, on May 26th, India experienced scorching temperatures reaching a maximum of 47.6 degree Celsius (117.68◦F) in Delhi, and issuing a red alert while recording the decade’s warmest May. A major reason of these sweltering temperatures is the catastrophic tropical Cyclone Amphan that depleted most of the moisture in the air and triggered dry north-western wind, to be further discussed in the following sections.

Forced displacement can as well be a result of drastic weather events such as heat waves. In fact, the heat waves have forced many countries to ease their restrictions on the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. But such measures of eating restrictions have unquestionably contributed to threatening coronavirus containment as many people are forcibly displaced in search of colder shelters. Yet, enclosed air-conditioned crowded shelters are highly probable to become virus-infected and virus-spreading systems.

The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that by 2050, the number of forced climate migrants would reach between 25 million and 1 billion ‘climate refugees’. Rise in temperature levels consequently leads to the displacement of people and damage of homes and medical centers, in search of better living conditions.

Such social displacement mobilizes already-infected people, thus exposing host populations to communicable diseases such as the current COVID-19 pandemic disease. Most people of lower socioeconomic status are considered vulnerable populations as they are only capable of settling in the suburbs and rural areas, where overcrowding persists. This restricts their access to healthcare services, safe and clean water, and proper housing conditions that would, if accessed, prevent the spread of infectious diseases among the population. Restricted access to these basic necessities further aggravates the possibility of COVID-19 spread among these vulnerable populations.

Cyclones

A tropical cyclone is made up of hundreds of clouds and thunderstorms that are formed due to global warming. Increased sea surface temperatures generate water vapor which consequently releases latent heat as it condenses into liquid; this liquid forms the above-mentioned clouds and thunderstorms. According to NASA, tropical cyclones are the most powerful weather events on Earth.

NASA Earth Observatory image on May 19th of Cyclone Amphan by Lauren Dauphin.

Cyclone Amphan, which formed on May 16th and landed on May 20th, brought strong heavy winds spreading between West Bengal and Bangladesh. Storm winds up to 185 km/hr, as well as heavy rain, were formed by this tropical cyclone, cutting off power supplies, flooding shelters, blocking drains, and damaging households, crops, and bridges. Around 100 have been killed while millions evacuated and were displaced. On the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the Cyclone Amphan intensified from tropical cyclone category 1 (minimal) to the maximum category 5 (catastrophic) on May 18th. 

The cyclone has now dissipated, yet in the aftermath, various challenges exist including damaged houses, water shortage, and lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. 

In times like this, the poor and vulnerable are in survival mode, they ignore the need for social distancing and focus on finding a shelter or any form of escape from the cyclone. This cyclone has further exacerbated existing social inequalities as the poor families are the most vulnerable to cramming in overcrowded emergency shelters, increasing their chance of contracting COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. Since then, resources and assistance have been mobilized to the affected communities by the governments’ National Disaster Response Force, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, and many more partners.

Locust Attacks

Locust swarm attacks Jaipur, India on May 25th, The Weather Channel (TWC) India

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has more recently suggested that the warming in the Indian Ocean has triggered the “Indian Ocean Dipole” phenomenon, where the western and eastern parts of the ocean warm differentially. Such differential warming has brought upon India and West Asia massive extended rainfalls that, in the combination with the unusual cyclonic activities, have prompted the recent Desert Locust swarm infestation. This is primarily by creating the optimal breeding conditions for the Desert Locust.

As well, heat waves increase the spread of vector-borne communicable diseases, since increases in temperature intensifies the reproduction rates of these insects. As the temperature increases, the insects’ incubation period becomes shorter, leading to faster reproduction rates and an increased risk of exposure to vector-borne diseases.

Other than the economic crisis ignited by the pandemic, locust attacks have further worsened the issue of food insecurity and lost livelihoods as crops and agricultural lands are seriously damaged and lost. According to National Geographic, a desert locust can eat its own weight in plants just on the daily and locust swarms can travel more than 80 miles per day. 

In 2020, to date, desert locust infestations have spread among 23 countries across East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. This is considered the biggest plague faced by certain countries in 70 years. On May 21st, the World Bank Group announced a $500 million emergency fund for recovery loss for countries affected by the locust attacks. The Emergency Locust Response Program (ELRP) will aid the locust-crisis-affected poor and vulnerable by targeted social safety nets such as cash transfers; recovery systems for crop and livestock production; and early surveillance and locust attack warning and control operation systems. The so-far approved countries to be financed are Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. And more countries are yet to be approved and assisted.

Zombie Fires

Zombie fires burning in the Arctic Region, New Scientist

Zombie fires are dormant fires that have been burning beneath the snowpack all winter. On May 27th, scientists reported that zombie fires have reignited in the Arctic region, spanning over Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia. Scientists from the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) have reported that these fires have been burning underground since last year’s major blazes and they fear that these sparked fires can melt permafrost, carbon-rich frozen soil. Melted permafrost majorly increases Earth’s temperatures as it releases greenhouse gases and could even release radioactive substances, thus further exacerbating the issue of global warming and climate change.

June 5th : World Environment Day 

The above are sheer examples of how the Environment affects all living things on Earth. All of these disasters have worsened the health of the vulnerable populations hit by these extreme events. These extreme natural events can happen to each and every one of us. And that is why: 2020 is the year #ForNature, the year when we all need to “wake up”, “take notice”, “raise our voices”, and “build back better for the People and the Planet”.

Increases in the global temperatures, changes in the precipitation patterns, rise in the sea-levels, and aggravations in natural disasters are all environmental factors manifested by climate change. Thus, playing a significant role in the recurrence and spread of infectious diseases. The time has come for nations to stand as soldiers in the face of this man-made natural weapon, known as climate change, which is capable of killing vulnerable people and wiping out continents. 

Social Justice Issue

The issue at hand is not simply an environmental health issue, but as well a social justice calamity. Impacts of climate change have violated ethical principles and created social injustice among countries, poorer populations, and migrants. Social disparities within populations are a result of differences in socioeconomic conditions that have been linked with climate injustice. The poorer populations are deprived from their basic human rights of having safe shelter, secured food, and safe water since their housing conditions and agricultural lands are in inadequate conditions to withhold such climatic impacts and decimated healthcare and sanitation systems. On the other hand, forced displacement has violated the least restrictive principle through forcing people to leave their homes temporarily or permanently and potentially become climate refugees, all against their will for them to be able to survive. Eventually, they end up to be socially excluded, economically incapable, and emotionally destroyed as a result of such displacement.