by Michelle Arledge
May 13-14, 2025
from KiteAndKeyMedia and ClimateChangeDispatch Websites








Why we're safer from

climate disasters than ever before...

The (surprisingly) good news about Extreme Weather.

We're too worried about

extreme weather in wealthy nations...

and not worried enough

in the developing world...

These days, stories of extreme weather are everywhere you look.

But a crucial detail often goes overlooked:

We're safer from the consequences of that weather than ever before...!

There was a time when extreme weather events that led to massive fatalities were depressingly common in the U.S.

In the last 85 years, however, there have only been three such events that took over 1,000 lives:

• Hurricane Katrina

• Hurricane Maria

• a 1980 heatwave

There's a reason for that.

The most important factor in determining a natural disaster's destructiveness isn't its intensity, but how well people in its path are protected.

 

And on that front, things have improved... a lot.

Better building codes have prevented about $1.6 billion in damage a year since 2000.

 

Advances in hurricane forecasts and early-warning systems have given people more time to prepare.

Having air conditioners in nearly 90% of American homes has severely cut the risk of extreme heat.

And while you often hear that the economic damages from extreme weather are growing, you don't often hear why...
 

A world with abundant air conditioning

changed Miami from a barren landscape to a thriving city.

Source: Kite & Key Media
 

It's not that more property is being destroyed than in the past; it's that the property being destroyed is more valuable than it used to be.

In an apples-to-apples comparison,

the amount of economic damage that disasters cause has decreased in recent years... by over 75%.

So, the good news:

We're safer than we think.

While we still need to be on guard for natural disasters and take concerns about the climate seriously, the fears of an imminent apocalypse are overblown.

But there's bad news too, which is that,

there are a lot of people in the world that are still way more vulnerable to extreme weather than Americans are.

One of the best predictors of how well your country will fare in a disaster is how wealthy it is.

For a tangible example of this you can look at Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two countries that share the same island.

In 2004, the Dominican Republic was more than 250 percent wealthier than Haiti.

When a hurricane hit the island that year, 19 Dominicans died.

 

The death toll in Haiti: over 3,000.

And even wealthier nations can feel the sting of this if they don't take the necessary precautions.

A queasiness about developing new energy sources in Europe, for instance, left much of the continent dependent on Russian gas.

When Moscow cracked down on those exports because of the war in Ukraine, it sent energy prices soaring in the middle of winter - leading to an estimated 68,000 deaths from the cold.

But here's the most important thing to remember:

In most cases, we can avoid tragedies on that scale.

 

With proactive planning, continued technological innovation, and economic growth, society can protect itself from the worst mother nature can throw at us.

The worst Miami can throw at us? That's a different question...