Alice C. Hill writes for Council on Foreign Relations about the economic impact of hurricanes and natural disasters on the United States.
Here is a passage by Hill: Over the past five years, there has been an average of 17.8 such events per year, compared to an annual average of 7.7 between 1980 and 2021. Last year marked the seventh consecutive year in which ten or more billion-dollar disasters pummeled the nation. By July 11 of this year—just over halfway through 2022 and before Hurricanes Fiona and Ian struck—there had already been nine.
In the face of these events, it is necessary to consider how climate risk is now structural. Dealing with it calls for solutions that are both global (difficult to find where particular interests prevail rather than those of humanity and the planet) and national.
Complex thinking is more necessary than ever. If nothing is disconnected from the rest, climate risks are part of a mega-risk that is the consequence of the de-generative megacrisis in which we are immersed.
Climate risks, it is now clear, are growing and have a direct impact not only on economic systems but on the resilience of social systems and, therefore, on the strategic resilience of institutional systems.
In addition to complex thinking, there is an increasing need to invest in geospatial technologies in the face of these phenomena. It is only by monitoring and mapping territories, capturing fragilities in advance and intervening, that the consequences of climate change can be reduced. Research and application of these technological solutions are advanced and in progress: it is up to the ruling classes to work in partnership with technology companies and study appropriate solutions for the government of cities and territories in this phase of structural transformation of the world.
