Between 2010 and 2022, recurrent climate-related disasters across the globe have served as persistent warnings, underscoring the profound and systemic impacts induced by anthropogenic climate change. In 2010, Russia experienced an unprecedented heatwave and extensive forest fires, resulting in substantial human casualties, agricultural production losses, and ecological degradation. In 2012, the United States confronted a once-in-a-century drought that severely disrupted farming systems in the Midwestern agricultural belt, contributing to a marked surge in global food prices. In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, ranking among the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded and causing catastrophic damage. That same year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began to consistently emphasize the predominant role of human activities in driving climatic changes through its successive assessment reports (IPCC, 2013). In 2017, the Atlantic hurricane season witnessed a sequence of extremely destructive storms—Harvey, Irma, and Maria—that inflicted severe damage across the Caribbean and the southern United States. In 2018, California’s Camp Fire set new records in terms of fatalities and property loss within the state. From 2020 onward, western Siberia experienced exceptional temperatures exceeding 38 °C, accelerating permafrost thaw and increasing the frequency of Arctic wildfires. In 2021, a rare “heat dome” phenomenon enveloped western North America, with British Columbia, Canada, recording an all-time high temperature near 50 °C, which triggered fatal wildfires and acute ecological stress. The year 2022 further epitomized the convergence of multiple extreme events: approximately one-third of Pakistan was submerged by floods, eastern Australia and parts of South Africa faced torrential rainfall and flooding, and China, India, and several European countries grappled simultaneously with intense heatwaves and droughts. These developments collectively indicate that the world has entered a phase of heightened recurrence of compound climate-related disasters.

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Climate Change

  • Yiqing Gan

摘要

Between 2010 and 2022, recurrent climate-related disasters across the globe have served as persistent warnings, underscoring the profound and systemic impacts induced by anthropogenic climate change. In 2010, Russia experienced an unprecedented heatwave and extensive forest fires, resulting in substantial human casualties, agricultural production losses, and ecological degradation. In 2012, the United States confronted a once-in-a-century drought that severely disrupted farming systems in the Midwestern agricultural belt, contributing to a marked surge in global food prices. In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, ranking among the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded and causing catastrophic damage. That same year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began to consistently emphasize the predominant role of human activities in driving climatic changes through its successive assessment reports (IPCC, 2013). In 2017, the Atlantic hurricane season witnessed a sequence of extremely destructive storms—Harvey, Irma, and Maria—that inflicted severe damage across the Caribbean and the southern United States. In 2018, California’s Camp Fire set new records in terms of fatalities and property loss within the state. From 2020 onward, western Siberia experienced exceptional temperatures exceeding 38 °C, accelerating permafrost thaw and increasing the frequency of Arctic wildfires. In 2021, a rare “heat dome” phenomenon enveloped western North America, with British Columbia, Canada, recording an all-time high temperature near 50 °C, which triggered fatal wildfires and acute ecological stress. The year 2022 further epitomized the convergence of multiple extreme events: approximately one-third of Pakistan was submerged by floods, eastern Australia and parts of South Africa faced torrential rainfall and flooding, and China, India, and several European countries grappled simultaneously with intense heatwaves and droughts. These developments collectively indicate that the world has entered a phase of heightened recurrence of compound climate-related disasters.