Cyclone Fani that hit the Odisha coast on May 3, 2019, was indeed an extremely severe cyclone — when a super cyclone had hit the state 20 years ago, it had witnessed a loss of life of over 10,000 people! Despite over a million people being evacuated from sensitive zones, cyclone Fani caused the death of about 30-plus people in Odisha alone. The trail of destruction that Cyclone Fani left behind is mute testimony to the enormous avoided costs in terms of human lives. While Cyclone Fani was not caused by climate change, it would be accurate to say that it probably received its intensity on account of climate change. However, environmental degradation is also resulting in what are known as creeping events — events that are slow, but inexorable.

Source: dna May 07, 2019 01:41 UTC