Floods, Landslides Destroy Thousands of Myanmar Homes

EWEs force mass displacement in Myanmar

Multiple disasters caused by extreme weather events (EWEs) across 12 of Myanmar’s 14 provinces have destroyed thousands of homes, leaving [an additional] 385,000 households (3% of population) homeless.

Heavy storms, floods and landslides have destroyed thousands of homes, affecting 1.6 million people and flooding more than 1.4 million acres of farmland, WFO reported.

The disasters have also destroyed 972,000 acres of standing crops, especially paddy rice, 36,000 acres of fish and shrimp ponds, and more than 20,000 heads of cattle.

“Severe damage to roads, bridges and railways is making these ongoing relief and recovery efforts extra challenging,” said the report.

“Compounding an existing crisis: Out of the six provinces hit hardest by the monsoonal floods, four have been the stage of recurrent intercommunal tensions since June 2012 that have displaced more than 660 000 people, making those regions especially vulnerable to the impacts of the floods.”

Humans Have Destroyed Half the World’s Trees

More than 15 billion trees are cut down each year: Report

Academics led by Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies say they have prepared the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale, which reveals there are approximately 3.04 trillion trees worldwide.

The authors estimate that approximately 46% of the trees have been wiped out since the start of human civilization, and that 15 billion trees are cut down each year.

The report is sold for $32, and only the abstract is available free online.