Floods from unseasonable rain in Kazakhstan in May destroyed crops and livestock and left thousands homeless. In parts of Western Australia, a 30 to 40 percent drop in average rainfall has persisted for 20 years, so long there are fears it may be permanent. On the face of it, there is no obvious link between all these regional, disparate natural disasters. But they are the latest incidents in an ominous, emerging global pattern of more frequent, more extreme weather events. 755 natural disasters last year alone, well up from the previous record of 702 in 1998 and the long-term average of 600.
Small variations drive big changes.
Professor Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research, was in no doubt when giving evidence to the Australian Senate inquiry into climate change earlier this year. The effects will be irreversible. Several quakes have been so strong that national broadcaster NHK has thrown out normal programming and switched to emergency warning mode. Moreover, three volcanoes have belched large eruptions in the past four months. Few nations are as savaged by earthquakes as Japan.