THE AFFECTS OF EXTREME WEATHER IN VIETNAM

Extreme Weather in Vietnam is extreme natural phenomena, force majeure events and sometimes beyond the control of humans. According to information from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDDR), over the past 20 years, worldwide, it is estimated that natural disasters have increased by about 75%, killing more than 1 million people and affected more than 4 billion people, causing economic losses of nearly 3 trillion USD.

It is worth mentioning that Vietnam is in the group of 5 countries most severely affected by global climate change, which emerges as extreme weather phenomena appearing with increasing frequency. In the past 20 years alone in Vietnam, natural disasters such as storms, floods, landslides and so on have killed more than 13,000 people and caused property damage of over $6.4 billion, about 60% of the area. land and more than 70% of the population are at risk of suffering from natural disasters.

Statistics in recent years have clearly shown this anomaly in Vietnam. Typically, in 2019, extreme weather was assessed as not being rushed and fierce, but carrying many severe and anomalous elements throughout all regions of Vietnam with 16/21 types of natural disasters. In which, there were 11 natural disaster risks level 3, 8 storms and 4 tropical depressions. In addition, there were 222 thunderstorms and lightning storms; 10 flash floods, landslides; 4 waves of severe cold, harmful cold; 13 heat waves; 63 heavy rains, flooding; 13 earthquakes and coastal erosion in many areas in the Mekong Delta. 

In 2020, not only with an increasing frequency, natural disasters in Vietnam were assessed as having many unusual, even anomalous, unpredictable factors. El Nino phenomena has affected the weather pattern in the beginning of the year, while has La Nina phenomenon affected it in the latter part of the year. This has resulted in extremely high temperatures at the beginning of the year and storms and torrential rain at the end.

Extreme weather stroked ferociously in 2021, resulting in significant harm to both persons and property. There were 841 natural disasters in Vietnam, including 12 hurricanes and tropical depressions in the East Sea that have left 108 people dead or missing, 95 people injured, and an estimated 5 trillion dong in damage.

In 2022, 175 individuals were dead or missing as a result of natural disasters caused by Extreme Weather, with a total projected economic loss of 19,453 billion VND compared to the same period in 2021. There were 3.4 times as many economic losses and 1.6 times as many human casualties.

In response to extreme weather, the Vietnam Government has set a goal to strive to reduce human losses by 30% by 2025 for types of natural disasters of equivalent intensity and scale that occurred in the period 2015-2020.

According to the IPCC (International Plant Protection Convention), climate, people, and biodiversity are interrelated. Therefore, in my opinion, we, especially, the young generation need to strongly raise awareness of people around us about the importance of taking swifter, more ambitious action to combat global climate concerns. What we do today will influence how humans adapt to extreme weather and interact with the natural world.