Thread by @NiranjanAjit

the philippines is being hit by the strongest storm the world has seen this year, affecting an estimated *20-30 million people*, and guess which word doesn't warrant a mention in international news coverage
edition.cnn.com/2020/11/01/asi…

BBC, New York Times, Aljazeera
nytimes.com/2020/10/31/wor…
aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/1…
bbc.com/news/world-asi…

Reuters and Associated Press (news agencies whose influence is massively underestimated) via CNN, Guardian and DW
edition.cnn.com/2020/10/31/asi…
dw.com/en/super-typho…
theguardian.com/world/2020/nov…

it's too early to say by how much climate change made this storm stronger but there's important context that we really should report as soon as such disasters strike.

like that by 2050, coastal floods that used to hit once a century will strike many cities *every single year*

here's a sobering sunday activity: click on this report about oceans from the IPCC, the gold-standard science on climate change, and CTRL+F "extreme" ipcc.ch/srocc/chapter/…

Update: the NYT live coverage of Goni/Rolly has a big section on climate!

"As sea-surface temperatures rise, the Philippines’ positioning in warm ocean waters means the country is being subjected to both bigger and more frequent tropical storms."

nytimes.com/2020/10/31/wor…

This is particularly good because it explains how slum-dwellers, miners and farmers are more at risk from floods and landslides, and how destroying mangroves has taken away natural barriers @newshound16 @hkbeech