These charts from UK's Guardian.com show how global warming is making the Earth less hospitable for humans:
key: dark blue, floods; light blue, earth movement (wet); green storms; yellow drought;
red, extreme temperature; orange, wildfires
About 80% of the 3,496 reported disasters in the last decade were caused by flooding and large storms. Disasters are becoming more expensive too, about 5.5 times more expensive than the seventies due to more coastal development and greater damage. Five of the costliest global disasters occurred in the US by storms wreaking $246bn worth of havoc. Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Andrew are the top three most damaging storms on record:
Fortunately, the United States if far down the list of most deaths due to climate conditions. The deadliest disasters still occur in poor countries unable to mobilize aid and evacuations effectively. Drought in East Africa of the 70's and 80's claimed over half a million people in Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. However, developed nations are not immune to killer climate change; Russia lost 55,736 people to record heat in 2010. Heat waves did not even register as a cause of death in the 70's. Now, they are next to storms as the leading killer of humans.
