Extreme flooding devastates Africa and Europe, displacing millions

Millions of people across seven African countries have been displaced, while in Europe, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary have also been affected, with evacuations ongoing. Climate scientists told The Guardian they were “troubled,” but “unsurprised by the intensity” of the floods’ damage and human consequences. “Climate change knows no borders,” the head of climate resilience at Zurich, an insurance company, said. In a study published earlier this year, scientists identified gaps in how countries track displacement and damage from flooding: “The consequence of this muddied information flow is that the conventional measure of human flood exposure… may severely underestimate the potential total number of people who may be forced to flee when overlapping disasters strike,” they wrote in an editorial.

Google announced a new constellation of 50 satellites to monitor wildfires this week, adding to the growing number of small orbital satellites monitoring Earth. Used to detect global pollution levels, observe crops, and collect weather and climate data, small satellites are cheaper and faster to make, easier to fix, and able to capture “enormous” amounts of data, the Brookings Institute noted. The demand for Earth-monitoring satellites is predicted to increase rapidly as extreme weather worsens. By 2030, observing Earth from space is estimated to contribute over $700 billion to the global economy and reduce greenhouse gasses by two gigatonnes, according to a World Economic Forum report.