Is Teh World Becoming More Hazardous
Is the world becoming more hazardous?
Yes, all the evidences show that the pattern of hazards is on the increase. Not only the number of hazards is increasing but the people vulnerability as well.
If we looked to the first graph of reported hazards from 1900 to 2009 (EM-DAT source) we could see a big difference between these years. There is a rapid increase of natural disasters since 1960s, till then the number of natural disasters was constant. This proves that we are facing with more and more hazards each year thus leads to more disasters and more loss.
Not only the frequency is increasing but the magnitude of hazards as well. Mostly in hydro-meteorological hazards (the graph no.2), probably due to climate change. In recent years we had the biggest disasters (both hydro-meteorological) Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Asian tsunami (2004) whose caused many deaths and a lot of damage.
However the first graph also is very similar to the graph of people population growing, as we know at the moment there is about 6.5 billion people on the Earth and this number is increasing as well as those natural disasters. In fact 25% of people in the world live in ‘high risk’ areas such as low-lying flood-prone land in Bangladesh. The third graph shows the number of people reported affected by natural disasters which also proves that there is an increase in being more and more vulnerable as there are more and more people.
However many disaster events can now be predicted much more accurately, because of better technology. As a result, early prediction reduce the effects of disasters- disaster deaths have fallen, although financial damage has rocketed (graph no.4). But if we looked in developing countries there wouldn’t be so much damage but there would be much more deaths (lack of knowledge, no awareness, poor infrastructure).
To summary, we are becoming more hazardous as there is an increase in population growing(more vulnerable people) and as there is an increase in
Yes, all the evidences show that the pattern of hazards is on the increase. Not only the number of hazards is increasing but the people vulnerability as well.
If we looked to the first graph of reported hazards from 1900 to 2009 (EM-DAT source) we could see a big difference between these years. There is a rapid increase of natural disasters since 1960s, till then the number of natural disasters was constant. This proves that we are facing with more and more hazards each year thus leads to more disasters and more loss.
Not only the frequency is increasing but the magnitude of hazards as well. Mostly in hydro-meteorological hazards (the graph no.2), probably due to climate change. In recent years we had the biggest disasters (both hydro-meteorological) Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Asian tsunami (2004) whose caused many deaths and a lot of damage.
However the first graph also is very similar to the graph of people population growing, as we know at the moment there is about 6.5 billion people on the Earth and this number is increasing as well as those natural disasters. In fact 25% of people in the world live in ‘high risk’ areas such as low-lying flood-prone land in Bangladesh. The third graph shows the number of people reported affected by natural disasters which also proves that there is an increase in being more and more vulnerable as there are more and more people.
However many disaster events can now be predicted much more accurately, because of better technology. As a result, early prediction reduce the effects of disasters- disaster deaths have fallen, although financial damage has rocketed (graph no.4). But if we looked in developing countries there wouldn’t be so much damage but there would be much more deaths (lack of knowledge, no awareness, poor infrastructure).
To summary, we are becoming more hazardous as there is an increase in population growing(more vulnerable people) and as there is an increase in