During the two weeks of the international climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, millions of people have been affected by extreme weather disasters. Our poisoned climate is fueling more extreme and dangerous weather, as the super-heated atmosphere brings heavier rains, harder droughts, and fiercer storms. These eight climate disasters that took place while the world’s governments debate whether to address climate pollution have killed dozens of people, displaced tens of thousands of people, and disrupted the lives of millions, and yet are far from the most damaging of 2011:

8. Canada Weather Bomb

On December 8: Hurricane-force winds in a fast-moving “weather bomb” system, including 92 mph gusts, knocked out power for 68,000 people in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Heavy snowfall blanketed north New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, forcing schools to close.

7. Scotland Weather Bomb

December 8: Severe winds of up to 165 mph from another weather bomb battered Scotland and northern England, forcing hundreds of schools to close, destroying a giant wind turbine, and leaving more than 56,000 people without power. “The storm’s winds were so strong as its pressure dropped by 44mb, almost double the qualifying amount for a weather bomb, in the 24 hours to 6am this morning. The winds today were stronger than the 80mph gusts seen when Hurricane Katia hit in September.”

6. Los Angeles Santa Ana Windstorm

November 30: A powerful, late-season Santa Ana windstorm with gale-force gusts “left much of the Los Angeles area strewn with toppled trees and downed power lines on Thursday, slowing rush-hour traffic,” canceling hundreds of flights, and knocking out electricity to over 430,000 residents. “Public schools in Pasadena and 11 other districts in San Gabriel Valley, northeast of Los Angeles, were closed for the day.” Thousands are still without power.

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The Climate Reality Project’s 24 Hours of Reality travels through the capital cities of the vast Asian continent, with billions of people, including the emerging superpowers of China and India. The presentations start in Seoul, and go to Beijing, Jakarta, New Delhi, and Islamabad. Each nation faces unique challenges from the climate crisis, and is devising innovative and hopeful responses:

SOUTH KOREA: Deadly floods are striking the Korean peninsula with increasing fury, devastating not only South Korea but its impoverished and isolated neighbor, North Korea. South Korea’s government is making a massive investment in renewable energy.

CHINA: China is undergoing an almost unimaginable degree of economic transformation while epic floods and droughts brought on by global warming add to the pressures on the most populous nation on earth. China is home to both extreme pollution and is also becoming a world leader in renewable technology, with investments in clean R&D that far outstrip the United States. The government is racheting up restrictions on carbon pollution while trying to maintain rapid economic growth, an exciting and dangerous balance.

INDONESIA: Home to vast rain forests and underwater forests of coral that are being destroyed at a frightening rate, Indonesia is acutely vulnerable to sea level rise, with most of its population at or below sea level. Efforts to save its forests are key to keeping the rise in global carbon pollution in check.

INDIA: The vast subcontinent of India is fighting unprecedented droughts, floods, and heat waves. The Himalayan glaciers that water the nation are receding, even as sea level rise and unpredictable monsoons are engulfing lowlands. The government of India has set ambitious renewable energy targets and commitments to carbon pollution reductions as it struggles to ensure its poor do not starve.

PAKISTAN: For the third year in a row, Pakistan is facing devastating floods, though 2010 remains the most extreme. The fragile nuclear nation is struggling to rebuild from the extraordinary flooding of last year.

Watch it (6 am-11 am EDT):