Over the past several days as we've seen the death and damage from the storm in Burma/Myanmar metastasize, there has been a greater-than-usual sense of impotency on the part of the international community in its inability to rise to the challenge. There is the extraordinary scale of the disaster, and the fact that so much of the impacted area is difficult to access. There is the immediate relief effort that seems to have been thwarted by the military government there. There is the realization that the hundreds of thousands who've been affected were terribly vulnerable in the first place, because of their poverty, the lack of adequate infrastructure, and their proximity to the Bay of Bengal and its often-dangerous weather.
There is a further realization, I think: that storms of this strength have been more frequent in recent years and will continue to grow in frequency and intensity. Certainly, Katrina's impact on the consciousness of Americans, and others, has been a key factor in the further recognition and acceptance of the reality of the climate change crisis that is looming. The AFP reports here that "Some experts argue the evidence is already hard enough to identify a probable trend: storms are becoming more powerful as global warming heats up the oceans." The article gives a good summary of the scientific thinking.
To go deeper, you can refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Working Group II Report "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" (from last year's critical Fourth Assessment Report), and specifically the chapter on Coastal Systems And Low-Lying Areas. (See also this from Reuters when the WG II report was issued, and my post at the time.) The IPCC Chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said "It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit."
In this thoughtful piece, The Science Of Cyclones, from MSNBC's Alan Boyle, we learn about the work of Chris Mooney, the author, and blogger for Intersection. (I've mentioned Chris here. He's a formidable voice.) Among the things that Mooney says in his interview with Boyle, and this very much echoes the message from the IPCC, is "There's a huge socioeconomic disparity, in terms of levels of preparedness, and in terms of levels of damage, and especially in terms of numbers killed by cyclones in the world. And that's something we’ve got to address." You can hear the interview here here and read Mooney's essay for "Science Progress" here.
In the meantime, you should find out ways to help. My first stop when disaster strikes is Unicef. Not surprisingly, they are geared up to help. Look at their website's Cyclone Nargis information for more.
