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UN calls Pakistan floods a result of climate change
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Severe weather conditions around the world have many scientists and officials pointing to human-induced climate change as the explanation. Widespread wildfires in Russia, droughts in Brazil, intense mudslides all over China and now the disastrous flooding in Pakistan seem to be more than an enough evidence to call out climate polluters.
Since the flooding began in late July, an estimated 20 million individuals have been affected by the flood and approximately 1,600 have died. The widespread devastation has drawn increasing notice, most recently from the United Nations, which passed a unanimous resolution to increase emergency relief.
In the report, the UN did not fail to note the connection between the extreme weather and climate change. The organization wrote that the severe flooding was a symptom of "the adverse impact of climate and the growing vulnerability of countries to climate change."
The UN was not alone in making these observations. Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi asserted that climate change has "become a reality for 170 million Pakistanis."
Furthermore, he added that climate change "complicates the reconstruction and rehabilitation scenario in Pakistan." In referring to the currently stalled climate negotiations, Quershi said that "nature has made a graphic endorsement to strengthen the case for a fair and equitable outcome."
However, some officials and scientists are wary of claiming causality, saying it would be scientifically negligible to make such connections using only a single set of events. Yet, they admit that such events accord with previously predicted patterns.
"While a longer time range is required to establish whether an individual event is attributable to climate change, the sequence of current events matches [the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] projections of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming," the World Meteorological Organization said.
Surprisingly, the amount of aid flowing to flood victims remains low. According to a survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, 11 U.S. charities have received a total of only $5 million so far – compared to the earthquake in Haiti which raised $560 million in the same time period.
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