Natural disasters caused by climate imbalances

8 months ago (Edited)

In recent years, due to the influence of global, regional and local climate changes, a large series of natural phenomena have occurred, affecting large dimensions of crops, towns, cities and people, which by the excessive action of products that destroy the ozone layer, which in turn allows the entry of ultraviolet rays directly and does not allow their exit to outer space, creates the so-called global warming generated by the excessive accumulation of gases that has generated an imbalance in what is known as the greenhouse effect, which affects the climate behavior at the global, regional and local level, according to the theory of Gaia and the theory of systems, these changes are what have originated all the natural phenomena, currently experienced.

In our country Venezuela there have been some catastrophic incidents due to climatic events such as excessive rains, for example, in 1999 in the State of Vargas some areas were completely covered by frequent rains that generated some landslides and floods. Unfortunately this happened again in the same sector despite there being some antecedents, people began to build their houses in areas considered high risk to frequent floods and close to certain channels, unstable hills and for example the elementary prevention measures were not taken.

The Tragedy of Vargas in Venezuela in 1999

_{Public domain image taken from FLIRCK}

Natural disasters such as those mentioned above related to severe weather events cause great economic losses and, in some cases, loss of human life. Not only are events caused by extreme climate variations important, but also because they generate the spread of epidemics affecting plants, animals and human communities. Such is the case of what happened in our geographical area South of Lake Maracaibo last year that heavy and continuous rainfall caused the rupture of some retaining walls and some rivers resumed their natural channels causing the flooding of large areas of crops, which generated great economic losses in terms of crops and animal deaths.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish early warning systems that warn people living in high-risk areas well in advance of the consequences that a disaster can bring, causing exorbitant losses. Although progress in this field varies considerably from country to country, and from region to region, it is now widely recognized that early warning is an essential component of disaster reduction efforts and, as such, should be understood in the context of disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation.

These early warning systems according to the Universidad sur del Lago Unisur (2000), early warning systems should be structured as follows

Availability of automatic measuring equipment, well installed and operated by trained personnel.
These equipment must be connected to a telemetric radio communication system so that the observations and measurements are automatically transmitted to a central observatory for timely analysis.
The monitoring of natural threats and their connection with populations at risk must be permanent. This will facilitate the correct forecast of weather and natural events, as well as alert communication.

Final considerations

Finally, from agrotecnia we consider that in the Municipality of Colón a Methodological proposal should be established in Early Warning Systems before natural risk of floods and on the other hand the State Institutions that have responsibility for Disaster Prevention and Management, train organized communities and the people in general, in the awareness of the preservation and conservation of the environment and the consequences that may occur when not taking the necessary forecasts for the conservation of the natural spaces that are within the area under study.

Bibliographic references

Universidad Sur del Lago (UNISUR) (2000), Proposal for an Environmental Emergency Plan for the Municipalities of Colón and Catatumbo.

Sources

- Photography and images: Photo of the cover taken from FLICKR, the rest of the photographs and images are the property of the author.

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