Extreme weather, climate and water-related events caused nearly 12,000 disasters that killed two million people between 1970 and 2021, the World Meteorological Organisation has calculated.
Economic losses estimated at $4.3 trillion were suffered as a result of the disasters, the UN agency said.
The figures, announced at the start of the World Meteorological Congress on May 22, revealed that 90 per cent of the deaths were in developing nations.
The agency said mortality rates in such disasters were now decreasing, thanks to improvements in early warning systems and disaster management.
But least developed countries and small island developing states still suffer disproportionately in relation to the size of their economies.
“The most vulnerable communities unfortunately bear the brunt of weather, climate and water-related hazards,” said WMO secretary general Prof Petteri Taalas. He gave the havoc wreaked by this month's severe cyclonic storm Mocha in Myanmar and Bangladesh as an example.
An aim of the 12-day congress in Geneva, Switzerland, will be to ensure that early warning services reach every person on Earth by 2027.
Swiss President Alain Berset will open the session, which will also include representatives from UN agencies, development banks, governments, and national meteorological and hydrological services.
More than 60 per cent of economic losses due to weather-related disasters were reported for developed economies, but these losses equated to less than 0.1 per cent of the gross domestic product in most cases.
Extreme temperatures were the leading cause of reported deaths in Europe, while floods were the leading cause of economic losses.
In least developed countries, 7 per cent of disasters had an impact equivalent to more than 5 per cent of GDP, with some disasters causing losses of nearly 30 per cent.
Asia accounted for 47 per cent of all reported deaths, with tropical cyclones the leading cause of fatalities.
Bangladesh recorded the highest death toll in Asia, with 520,758 deaths in 281 events.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is leading the push for worldwide early warning systems coverage.
Despite the proven effectiveness of the systems, only half of countries have them in place. Coverage is lowest in small island developing states, least developed countries, and in Africa.
The early warnings initiative, led by the WMO and other agencies, has received widespread support and 30 countries have been identified to benefit in 2023.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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