With the passing of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt last November, the global community’s stance on climate change has never been clearer: emissions must be cut. Despite relatively few breakthroughs in terms of the real reduction in emissions, an agreement was struck between the nations in attendance to compensate lower income nations for losses accrued as a result of historical emissions. To many, this signaled an admission from our global leaders. It is expected that, if emissions continue to increase at today’s levels, global warming will reach levels of up to 1.5 degrees Celsius and natural disasters such as flooding will become all too common. This is the very issue that COP’s agreement on loss and damage sought to solve; by providing economic support it is thought that nations will be fully equipped with the means necessary to mitigate climate change. This, however, begs the question: how do social and behavioural patterns impact responses to disasters and could climate complacency increase warming related damages.
In December 2022, the Environment Agency launched a new flood warning scheme in Surrey and Kent. This impacted a total of 3,259 properties in areas such as Folkestone and aims to send mobile phone alerts to residents in the event of a flood, streamlining evacuations for the most vunerable. These systems present no revolutionary development in technology and have been tried and tested in many areas of the world for many years now. Research on existing schemes has presented some interesting results.
The United States’ Tornado Alley can experience up to 125 tornadoes per year on average and each one comes a new alert warning locals of the upcoming threat. Research conducted by the US’ National Weather Service found that many residents simply refused to evacuate their homes despite imminent tornado threats and ongoing alerts. Countless locals cited experience of ‘riding out’ past events with little to no damage, with many even claiming that countless false alarms have led them to lose confidence in established warning systems and subsequently ignore them. Apathy towards what appear to be life threatening dangers has developed to such a level that the UN warns it could produce 560 additional disasters each year by 2030.
As climate change related events become more common, many fear that such apathy could exacerbate already devastating disasters. If used incorrectly, disaster warning systems could be seen as an overly cautious response to changing weather patterns, with many locals growing tired of constant alerts that never seem to manifest into real life threats. Here in the UK, both the Environment Agency and Met Office have urged households to take preprations in the face of increasingly wet winters. Research conducted by these organisations suggests that up to 1.5 million households are classed as underprepared for a flood event, with basic protocol such as evacuation plans not carried out. It appears that, even with the government’s repeated attempts to reach affected communities, a lack of initiative has hindered disaster response.
Europe’s 2021 floods highlighted the need for increased flood awareness, but with the growing frequency of these events, could the future of ‘learning to live with climate change’ take a dangerous turn down a road of complacency, apathy and tragedy? There remains no clear solution to the issue at hand, with many struggling to strike a balance between preparation and continuing with life as normal.