Chile faces another natural disaster – flash floods leave nine people dead, 19 missing

#Antofagasta #AtacamaDesert #climatechange #chilefloods Torrential rains in the Atacama Desert in Chile has left behind a trail of disaster and communities in Chile's northern desert region had to retrieve their houses and cars out of the mud and work to re-open roads and communication links as floods devastated a number of cities and left nine people dead. Another nineteen people were also reported to be missing.
This has been confirmed by Sub-secretary Mahmud Aleuy. He also anticipates the number of dead and missing to go up. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 29 March 2015.

Initial information would suggest that roads had been cut to more than 40 communities and, many of them did not have access to potable water or electricity. The heavy rains had swelled the rivers and led to flash flooding in cities including Copiapo, Chanaral, Tierra Amarilla and Taltal, all hundreds of kilometres north of Santiago.
The precipitation in Antofagasta, 1376-Km north of Santiago, provided a stark example of the abnormal rain as indicated by the met department. It normally receives hardly 1.7mm of rain annually and, in this case, it received 24mm within two days.
The deluge has come following several days of high temperatures and a drought that stoked raging wildfires in Chile's south-central regions. These fires have burned nearly 93,000ha in the 2014-15 season – this is much above the annual average of 59,300ha over the previous five years.
Obviously, such drastic changes in the surroundings could be a result of climate change, global warming and environment degradation and authorities would need to address themselves to solve such problems on a long term basis.

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Talks in Peru on global warming facing hurdles

Everyone is aware that global warming is wreaking havoc on planet Earth hence, when a meeting was held by 190 nations to discuss and arrive at a modus operandi to control global warming, it is facing hurdles.
The two-week meeting on global warming was due to close in Lima, Peru, but disputes that arose in the opening days remain unresolved even as the negotiators struggled to come to terms with key issues.
One of the most contentious issues was to take a decision on what information should go into the pledges that governments are supposed to put on the table for a global climate pact expected to be signed at a summit in Paris next year.
While the developed countries want the pledges to focus on greenhouse emissions cuts, the developing nations want to see commitments of financial support to absorb the effects of climate change – this, as per estimates of the UN estimates would be in the region of $200bn annually by the year 2050.
Small island states are at risk of being flooded by rising seas and, they have complained that the draft does not make any mention of any "loss and damage" mechanism that had been agreed on in last year's UN talks in Poland.
Thee needs to be a permanent arrangement to help the poorest of the world, is how the negotiator for the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu has put it.
The rising sea levels, intensifying heat waves and shifts in weather patterns causing floods and droughts are all indicators of global warming and, at present, most CO2 emissions are emanating from developing countries like China as they continue to grow their economies and lift millions of people out of poverty.