Information Related to "Superdisasters: Growing Weather Danger?"
| Audio/Video |
Superdisasters: Growing Weather Danger?
Superdisasters:
Growing Weather Danger?
Recent massive storms have brought dramatic increases in deaths and damages. What's
behind this deadly trend?
by Mario Seiglie
In a dramatic message, the International
Red Cross recently admitted its statistics showed an alarming rise of unusually large
natural catastrophes they call "superdisasters." A combination of horrific
storms and increasing numbers of people and property in harm's way has made recent
years some of the deadliest on record.
"Everyone is aware of the environmental problems of global warming and deforestation
on the one hand and the social problems of increasing poverty and growing shanty
towns on the other," said Dr. Astrid Heiberg, president of the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. "But when these two factors
collide, you have a new scale of catastrophe. At the Red Cross and (Red) Crescent
alone, we have a huge increase in the number of people needing our assistance due
to floods and earthquakes. In the last six years, it has risen from less than half
a million to more than five and a half million" (International Red Cross and
Red Crescent Society press release, "The World Disasters Report for 1999").
A large part of the problem is the increasingly large number of people crowding into
packed, poorly constructed housing in areas at great risk in major storms. When disaster
threatens, there is little infrastructure to evacuate people beforehand or to help
them when it strikes. Consequently the toll of injuries and deaths is much greater
than it otherwise would be.
Dramatic rise in damage
The first chapter in "The World Disasters Report for 1999" ominously
stated: "Compared to the 1960s, the past decade has seen the number of great
natural catastrophes triple, costing the world's economies nine times as much-the
bill for 1998 alone was over US$90 billion . . . From tsunamis and earthquakes
to floods and famines, humankind is increasingly threatened by the forces of nature.
With almost a billion people living in unplanned urban shanty towns, deforestation
wrecking ecological defenses against catastrophic natural events, and global warming
making the forces of wind, rain and sun even harder to predict and counter, the world
is at risk as never before."
Related Information on UCG Sites:
Table of Contents that includes "Superdisasters: Growing Weather Danger?"
Other Articles by Mario Seiglie
Weather: