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Are there any climate change sceptics out there?
Friday, May 11th, 2012
If so I strongly recommend that you read here the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. That’s quite a mouthful, which is why the authors have shortened the title to SREX. If that reminds you of the popular name for Tyrannosaurus Rex – T-Rex – then perhaps it might also realise that if we don’t wake up to what’s going on around us we may end up like the dinosaurs – extinct! Read the full entry
Number of views: 998
Chad’s silent children – the sad face of malnutrition
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
In the city of Mao in Kanem province in Chad, there is a hospital we fund where the sound of silence on the children’s ward is chilling.
It’s strange to be with children who are so quiet. In the intensive care ward where they are treating babies for severe acute malnutrition there are fifteen mothers with their young children. In a few months time this number will soar but I am certain that the oppressive silence will remain the same. Read the full entry
Number of views: 1795
Welcome to a world of seven billion people
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
A newborn baby’s first cry has just marked a world record – the seven billionth person living on our planet was born.
Each new life is a new hope. And yet, all too many hopes get crushed by poverty and conflicts. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2527
When disasters call, what should our answer be?
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
Better, faster, synchronised. This is my response to the question in the title. Today I proposed the ways to reach this target. Before I tell you what they are, here is why we need to act now.
First, disasters happen more often, and cause more destruction today than they did 35 years ago. You know how many they have been this year alone – earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, floods in Pakistan and Central Europe, forest fires in Russia, the oil rig explosion, the volcano eruption… Read the full entry
Number of views: 2938
Commissioner Georgieva in Bonn visiting the exhibition of the latest disaster response technologies
On Wednesday I had the opportunity to address the 6th European Congress on Civil Protection and Disaster Management in Bonn. It was an excellent event – a platform for generating new ideas, and a place to showcase technological advances, from disaster simulators to protection gear and equipment for disaster response.
My message was simple. The world is changing and the frequency and intensity of disasters are on the increase. The number recorded worldwide has risen fivefold since 1975. Because of this there is an urgent need to strengthen disaster management at all levels. This applies to local and national capacity, and it also applies to action at European level. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2136
Pakistan: Help makes the difference between hope and despair
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
In Pakistan I met a young man called Gul-a-Lala, which in Pashtun means “Flower of Paradise”. He is an Afghan refugee who lives in the village of Azakhel, in Nowshera district, which is north of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
Gul-a-Lala escaped from war in Afghanistan to make a new life in Azakhel. But at the end of July the Monsoons arrived. His house was flooded together with the rest of the village. And when the waters receded they left behind a mess of bricks, broken wood and mud. Like many other victims of the floods in the north of Pakistan, he has been hit twice: he lost everything in the war and then he lost everything again with the floods. His traditional clothes were dirty, and his bare feet muddy. When he knew who I was he asked me in perfect English: “What is Europe going to do to help us?” For his village I had an answer – we were there to assess how a cash-for-work programme can help them rebuild, and relief is on the way. But this is just one drop in a sea of troubles. With more than 17 million people affected, spread all the way from north to south, and often in hard to reach places, Pakistan needs all the help it can get. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2189
With desertification spreading fast because of climate change, drought is affecting millions of people. This is particularly painful for Africa – because the continent has contributed least to climate change, but suffers from it the most. It is shocking, but true: droughts in Africa account for 95% of the death toll caused by natural disasters.
I was recently in Niger, one of the poorest and driest countries in the world, situated in the region of Sahel, a large stretch of mainly arid and semi-arid land. The population there has always been vulnerable to droughts, but not to the degree we witness today. Although average rainfall levels have remained steady, the arrival of rains has become less predictable, and they often come in very short and heavy bouts, which wash away seeds and destroy crops. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2049
