timz The devastating floods in Western Europe last month have left many, including me, stunned. The floods have left people homeless, washed out villages along the affected rivers, and halted production at factories. Having been born and raised in Bangladesh, I am and have been for a long time, intensely aware of the effects of climate change, warming temperatures, and rising sea levels. On August 9, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, delivering the assessment that climate change is ‘widespread, rapid, and intensifying’.
To see this level of devastation in my adopted country of Germany, and even more recently in the Henan Province of China, leaves no room for doubt that the effects of climate change are greater than ever before. In many cases, we are woefully unprepared to be able to deal with it.
The specific intensity of some of these events may be hard to predict, but that should not have any bearing on our ability to prepare. Many supply chain professionals are still caught off-guard by these weather phenomena and wonder what could’ve been done differently to mitigate the impact of the devastating events.