Climatic change “not always to blame”

THE Director General of the Balearic Government's Emergencies Department, Joan Pol, yesterday denied that the significant rise in material and human damage done by natural disasters in Europe and the Balearics in the last few decades was all due to climatic change and warned that there are other reasons to take into account to explain this rise. Pol made these remarks yesterday during the celebration of World Meteorological Day in the Balearics, which was commemorated by a conference created by the World Meteorological Organisation in 1950 and which this year has as its main theme the prevention of natural disasters and the lessening of their effects. The conference is being sponsored by Group Serra, which publishes the Daily Bulletin. Pol underlined the fact that the rise in the standard of living, the concentration of the population and the construction of roads and other infrastructures had also contributed to the rise in damage experienced by these weather phenomena. “It has been attributed without justification to climate change”, he said, adding that other causes had also contributed to the rise is this damage, such as the growth of the use of cars and trains or the population's disregard for the care of the places where they live and of the risks of this. Also, Pol referred to the population's lack of awareness and education in the matter of risks of natural disasters, such as a tornado or windstorm and, as a result, they take incorrect or rash action. During the conference, Pol argued for more information about the real reasons for this rise in the risks of natural disasters.