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Currently — November 23rd, 2022

Currently — November 23rd, 2022

November 22, 2022

What you need to know, currently.

Climate change made the deadly rains and floods that killed hundreds of people in both Nigeria and Niger from June to October 2022 80 times more likely, according to a recent study.

The study from the World Weather Attribution, or WWA, also concluded that the year’s seasonal rainfall in the Lake Chad and Niger Basins, was 20 percent wetter due to effects of climate change. This is significant because Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which all have territories within either of the two basins, were most impacted by the flooding.

The study found that the extreme rainfall wouldn’t have been as likely without human-caused climate change and warning. Unfortunately now, rain like this is likely to occur once every 10 years.

With at least 612 and 195 fatalities in Nigeria and Niger, respectively, the floods were among the deadliest in the countries’ histories. Several hundreds of thousands of hectares of land were decimated, causing damage to over 300,000 homes and over half a million hectares of farmland as well. In September, Chad experienced its heaviest seasonal rainfall in over 30 years. Thousands of residents were forced to flee their now flooded homes.

And though wealthy countries agreed to pay climate reparations to those at the frontlines of the climate crisis at this year’s climate summit, this report just adds further evidence that less-industrialized nations bear the brunt of the damage caused by their richer counterparts.

—Aarohi Sheth

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