In case you missed it, yesterday was International Disaster Reduction Day. A worthy cause, if it can be done sensibly, but this is what Martin Bell had to say about it:
In my capacity as UNICEF Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies I have travelled to some of thet afflicted countries in the world and obtained an insight into the destructiveness of these disasters. Climate change, deforestation and the desertification of arable land have all had their part to play and children are always the most vulnerable.....
UNICEF estimates that there are 756 million of them living in the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change and every year over the next decade 175 million children will be affected by climate related disasters
Clearly the effects of climate change are taking hold across the world...Every pound spent in disaster prevention can save four pounds in disaster relief. This is why the newly established Green Climate Fund is so important. In 2009 the world’s governments committed to provide $100 billion (£62 billion) a year by 2020 to tackle the climate change through this fund and preventing disasters caused by climate change will be a major focus its work....
and so on.
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