Climate Change Disaster — A Huge Number Affected

An analysis by the Washington Post says in 2021 that 40% of us were impacted by disasters caused by climate change. That conclusion comes from looking at federal government disaster declarations.

And 80% of Americans were inconvenienced by a heat wave or two last year.

Those disasters — floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes etc. — killed 656 people and caused $104 billion in damages to property. And this does not include the cost of wildfires and the damages caused by them.

Analysis of federal data by the Washington Post found that 15% of Americans live in a county that has seen a fire disaster. Here’s information on the numbers who have been affected by fire declared disasters in the last 6 years:

2021 — 15.3%

2020 — 13.2%

2019 — 5.5%

2018 — 6.3%

2017 — 8.8%

2016 — 8.9%