Human Crisis After Super Cyclone Amphan
A disaster we overlooked?
It’s May 2020.
Most of us here in North America are locked in our homes, trying to navigate the pandemic lockdown, anxiously watching the news for new Covid-19 updates.
But on the other side of the world, around the West of India, a cyclone hits.
Cyclone is an understatement here. Super cyclone is more like it.
Either way, the result was a quarter of Bangladesh going underwater.
I don’t know you well enough to decide if your reaction to that was eyes widening, jaws dropping, or a simple shrug and a “so what?” thought… But in the article, I will be going over the (unfortunately very negative) impacts of the natural disaster that hit the developing South Asian nation.
I will mainly be going over:
→ The events that lead up to the historic floods
→ The current situation in Bangladesh as of March 2022
→ The social impact of the floods
→ The economic impact of the floods
→ The environmental impact of the floods
→ The political impact of the floods
→ Consequences of the floods on the rest of the world
→ Actions taken post-floods to prevent future occurrences
As you can see, that’s quite a lot to go over. However, we can all agree that this is a urgent matter to know about, because like it or not, for all of us who weren’t directly impacted by the events — our turn is coming up.
So… What happened?
Great question, and I am glad you asked.
But before we go on to that, let’s go back to elementary school social studies material to ensure we all know what a super cyclone is (no, I didn’t make that up, it’s an actual term).
What’s a cyclone?
A cyclone is a system of winds that rotate around a center of low atmospheric pressure with a one-minute sustained wind speed of at least 119 km/h — it rotates counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Additionally, as opposed to tornados forming over land, cyclones form over warm ocean waters near the equator.
So what’s a super cyclone?
Super cyclones are an even more extreme version of cyclones. Cyclones can be classified as super cyclones if their maximum wind speed surpasses 222 km/h (or 119 knots — a measuring unit used in meteorology).
Back to what happened.
So now that we all know what a cyclone is, we can go back to what happened.
In mid-may, a cyclone started to form over the Northern part of the Indian Ocean, its trajectory the West Bengal, impacting Eastern parts of India and ending up in Bangladesh.
Don’t get me wrong — cyclones are not uncommon in those regions. In fact, if you look at this list of the top 10 deadliest cyclones in the world, 7 out of 10 hit Bangladesh and lead to tens of thousands of deaths at a time. However, the magnitude of super cyclone Amphan was severe enough to earn it the super cyclone title and a category four classification. Not only that, but the pandemic directing support and attention away from the issue amplified the aftermath, which we will be examining throughout this article.
Who’s to Blame?
What the heck are you talking about here? It’s a natural disaster, so the only thing there is to blame would be nature!
Unfortunately, not entirely.
While the super cyclone was a pretty natural and usual occurrence in the region, its magnitude was not — it was amplified by climate change and global warming, which humans undeniably contributed to.
Still need some more clarity? The #1 climate change impact we can look at here is rising sea levels that result from global warming and melting arctic ice sheets. With normal sea levels, the floods would have certainly not covered a quarter of Bangladesh.
Wealthy Countries
When looking at the human impact on the cyclone, we might also want to look deeper into the human population and identify which part of the population is at the center of the problem.
Looking at the data, the average Bangladeshi citizen contributed about 0.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, compared to about 16.1 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions for the average Canadian or American citizen in 2018.
And for the record, here is an infographic showing the emissions per capita per trend per countries ranked from the highest in 2020…
Pretty sure that Qatar, Brunei, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are not developed country… So I can’t see a trend anywhere there…
Sure there might not necessarily be a trend in terms of developing vs developed country. But there is a trend not too far from that — wealthier countries have higher emissions than poor countries. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, while Qatar for example is considered to be the world’s richest country according to certain metrics.
Point is, the consequences of irresponsible decisions and acts taken by the rich people are affecting the poor people who had no say and no contribution to the damage. Despite that, support for the affected countries is very minimal… but let’s not be quick to judge — looking at the SEEP impacts of the disaster might give us a better understanding of the situation.
SEEP Impacts
Social, Economic, Environmental and Political impacts of super cyclone Amphan.
Social Impact
118 lives taken by the super cyclone.
Thousands of families lost their homes to the floods, and thousands of others lost their main income source to land and forest damage.
Economic Impact
$USD 13.5 B in damages.
That is the costliest cost in damages for a cyclone in the North Indian Ocean. New record set 😱.
“What do we care”
Bangladesh is a very significant player in the global supply chain with textile, ready-made garments and agricultural produce exports.
The country is also the second fastest growing economy in the world. However, their economy scored a record low GDP growth as a result of the flood in 2020 with only 3.51%.
More severe occurrences of the flood can potentially pull the nation’s economic growth back and leave the Bangladeshi population in a loop of poverty and struggle.
Environmental Impact
Bangladesh and the West of India are home to the largest mangrove forest on the planet — The Sundarbans Forest.
The Sundarbans Forest is home to some unique and endangered species — notably the Royal Bengal tiger, river terrapin, estuarine crocodiles, Ganges and Irawadi dolphins and over 28 species of Mangrove trees.
The forest is the only income source for thousands of Bangladeshi and Indian families.
Not to mention that the forest greatly contributes to reducing the impact of the floods by fixing the soil and acting as a barrier to help ease the floods.
Unfortunately, the forest is endangered, and its destruction leaves the local population and species at a much greater risk. As a result, we should all be actively working towards protecting the Sundarbans ecosystem.
Political Impact
4 countries were mainly affected by the cyclone — India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
However, for the purpose of this article, I will only focus on the political impact of Bangladesh as it was arguably the most affected overall.
In brief, the national crisis that hit Bangladesh once again uncovered the empty promises the government keeps making in every single political campaign.
Just like most governments in developing and under-developed countries, the government is in many cases corrupt, incompetent and doesn’t have access to necessary resources to help their populations.
The only support that the government offered was subsidizing rice to ease food insecurity and shelters to protect people from the storm in addition to recommendations to pause certain activities such as fishing and trains to keep citizens safe. However, there wasn’t relevant support for families who lost their homes to the floods, or fishing and farming workers whose jobs were greatly affected by the damages.
On a more positive notes, efforts from various international organizations did contributes to helping the nation be more prepared for the disaster. From over 300 000 lives taken by a cyclone in 1971 to 118 in 2020, there is distinguishable progress we should consider.
What’s Next?
Long-Term Decisions
Super cyclone Amphan hit mid-pandemic.
Politicians and decision-makers were struggling to deal with the more “urgent” problems, which justifies their inability to better react to the natural disaster.
However, we all need to recognize that what we are seeing right now is barely the tip of the iceberg of what’s coming. While the North Indian Ocean region is very prone to cyclones and floods being a delta region, rising sea levels also affect developed nations, such as the Netherlands — a nation that’s been historically struggling with rising sea levels.
It would be a wise decision if governments learned from such events to take decisions to protect their own populations and prevent the disasters from happening — we don’t need everyone to make the same mistakes and go through the same errors to recognize the effects of climate change. Despite that, from the look of it, we don’t need any significant action taken by governments — just watching from the sidelines.
Science and Technology’s Game
Looking at the current situation, current tools and technologies we’re using to prevent disasters and deal with them when they happen are not very efficient, let alone feasibility and accessibility considering the limited material resources that most affected nations have access to.
Investing in the research, development and implementation of more efficient and cheaper tools and methods can go a long way in helping countries and populations affected by disasters and are a good step towards minimizing the impact of such events and protecting humanity.
Conclusion
Super cyclone Amphan is a great reminder of what is going on in our planet.
Natural disasters have existed long before humans did. However, when humans came along they disrupted nature’s order in disasters — they started occurring more often and with growing consequences.
As inhabitants of this planet, our duty to our home is to protect it and take responsible actions that serve the best interests of our fellow humans and future generations.
Unfortunately, that’s clearly what’s NOT happening as I am writing this article. But that NEEDS to change, together, we can do this!
