Rise in Fossil Fuel Burning is Making Floods Lethal in Asia

The studies show that emissions from fossil fuel companies are directly linked not just to climate change, but to individual, deadly weather events

The recent storms in South and South East Asia have triggered deadliest floods and extreme monsoon season. The rise in temperature because of the rise in greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels has been attributed to be the major cause of it. 

More than 1,000 people were killed as a result of different storms during the extreme monsoon season across South and Southeast Asia. The storms triggered one of the worst and deadliest extreme weather events of the year, with heavy rainfall, flooding, and landslides registered in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Tropical cyclone Ditwah became the worst weather event to strike Sri Lanka in recent decades, bringing heavy rains and causing a trail of devastation as it moved across the country and towards South India.The death toll in Sri Lanka stands at 366, according to a report by The Guardian. 

Cyclone Senyar formed in the Strait of Malacca as a rare although not unprecedented formation that brought deadly floods in Indonesia and Malaysia. According to recent reports, the death toll has passed 700 in Indonesia, with 2,600 people injured and 504 people are still missing. 

Typhoon Koto, also known as Typhoon Verbena formed on November 23 and later made its first landfall in the Philippines. It unleashed powerful winds and heavy rains that caused floods and landslides. Although it weakened, it continued to wreak havoc in Vietnam.

The reports said the interaction of Koto and Senyar was particularly devastating on Sumatra, where at least 502 people were killed and hundreds are still missing. 

Climate change is projected to increase the intensity of storms. Studies have shown that a rise in ocean temperatures is linked to more intense tropical cyclones. The unusually warm waters over the Bay of Bengal, South China sea and the western Pacific just east of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula in mid-late November have likely intensified the storms in the region. 

Emission from fossil fuels directly linked to deadly weather events

While the monsoon season and the Indian Ocean Dipole naturally bring above-average rainfall, climate change is amplifying these effects, increasing the likelihood and intensity of heavy rainfall, according to an analysis by CarbonBrief. Emissions from fossil fuel companies are directly linked not just to climate change, but to individual, deadly weather events. For every ton of CO2 emissions by fossil fuel companies, the economic cost worldwide increases, having reached $28 trillion in damage just between 1991 and 2020, noted a report by Nature. 

Earlier this year, survivors of Typhoon Odette in the Philippines launched a case against Shell, arguing that the company’s contribution to climate change intensified the typhoon that resulted in deaths and significant damages. At the time, the storm killed more than 400 people and displaced nearly 3.2 million others, as it destroyed over a million homes.

Davide Faranda, Research Director at CNRS in France said, “Thousands of homes have been destroyed in recent storms, but what’s unfolding is a pattern, an accumulation of catastrophic events. If we don’t urgently phase out fossil fuels and invest in adaptation strategies, Southeast Asia will continue to face escalating socio-economic damages and humanitarian crises.”

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