Typhoon Haiyan

11/11/2013 - Typhoon Haiyan has caused severe damages on the Philippines and is reported to have killed thousands of people.

On the issue, Stefan Rahmstorf, co-chair of the research domain "Earth System Analysis" at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research:

"Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines has probably been the strongest tropical storm that ever hit mainland since the beginning of observations. Such storms have increased in the past three decades, and climate models suggest a further increase for the future. Global warming aggravates the impacts of storms like Haiyan: extreme rainfall that comes along with tropical storms causes floods and landslides, because evaporation rates and moisture content of the air increase in a warmer climate. Furthermore, there are storm surges at the coast, because the sea level rises due to global warming."