On UN
International Day for Disaster Prevention, PSI calls on UN to
focus on public emergency workers and warns of increasing climate chaos.
On 13 October, PSI
salutes the first responders and frontline workers who give so much to help
others. These firefighters, emergency medical technicians, health workers and a
range of other professionals spend untold hours training and preparing to
protect our communities, to save people and reduce suffering. Because of their
commitment, emergency workers put themselves in danger, leave their families to
work under the most dangerous conditions imaginable.
PSI General
Secretary Rosa Pavanelli says: “The UN system is right to focus on reducing
exposure to disasters. These disasters can wipe out years of development work,
leaving families and communities destroyed and impoverished. Most countries
need more investment in prevention, and in ensuring that emergency workers have
the tools and training to do their jobs. So we encourage all governments to
recognize the risks assumed by emergency workers".
But there is still
another point which has to be stressed. Emergency or disaster response is
largely conducted by public service workers, yet the international community
focuses almost exclusively on volunteers.
"This
is an anomaly that must be fixed if we are to improve local capabilities to
reduce exposure to disasters. In this direction, we call attention to the ILO Guidelines on Public Emergency Services which can provide
valuable guidance to policy makers.”
Alone in 2018, one need
only look at a range of disasters where emergency service workers have been
called out to save people and protect communities. Regrettably, the list is not
exhaustive, and does not include conflicts:
·
Wildfires
in Greece, Sweden, Portugal, USA, Canada, and more
·
Drought
: Cape Town South Africa is the most visible, but many regions are
affected, including notably Australia
·
Floods,
mudslides: Japan, Kerala state, India
·
Hurricanes,
cyclones : Florence and Michael in the USA; Mangkhut Philippines; cyclone
Josie Fiji
·
Earthquakes
(tsunamis; mudslides; earth liquefaction, etc.) Indonesia (twice); Papua New Guinea;
Hualien Taiwan
·
Volcano :
Mount Fuego Guatemala
Climate chaos
This same week, the UN’s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered a special report
on the state of global warming. This report says that we should
not go beyond the 1.5°C limit set in Paris and warns that a 2°C rise will have
dire consequences, worse than anticipated even a few years back.
The IPCC special report
on global warming deserves more in-depth consideration as regardless of which
actions governments agree, our communities need to adapt to more extreme
weather events. This means that we must prepare for more disaster, train and
deploy more emergency workers.
Pavanelli
still reminds that "regrettably, we are seeing attacks not only on
workers’ rights, but on community activists. In the UK, protesters have been
jailed for opposing shale gas fracking, in Germany it is protesters blocking
the proposals to mine coal in the Hamback forest. Around the world, those who
stand in the way of corporate profits are criminalised and repressed. So there
is an urgent need to unpack the links between corporate profits, climate chaos
and emergencies and disasters".
