What were the biggest Natural Disasters of the decade?
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M$4 Answers
Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm at its peak, and a category 3 when it hit New Orleans on 8.28.2005, ended up killing over 1800 people, leaving countless people homeless as part of the $81 billion damage total.
The European heat wave of June through August 2003 killed an estimated 37,451 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave ). A heat wave 3 years later killed an estimated 3418 Europeans in June and July of 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_European_heat_wave ).
The Kashmir earthquake of October 8, 2005 killed an estimated 86,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Kashmir_earthquake )
The Great Sichuan Earthquake of May 12, 2008 killed an estimated 69,197 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake ).
The Bam earthquake of December 26, 2003 killed an estimated 30,000 in Iran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Bam_earthquake ).
The Gujarat earthquake of January 26, 2001 killed an estimated 20,000 in India (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Gujarat_Earthquake ).
Cyclone Nargis of May 2, 2008 killed at least an estimated 146,000 and possibly as many as 1,000,000 Burmese, especially due to the delay in relief efforts caused by the leadership of Myanmar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Nargis ).
At least 1337 were killed in Afghanistan as the result of an especially fierce blizzard in February 2008 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Afghanistan_blizzard ).
The H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009 is estimated to have killed over 12,000 people worldwide so far (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic ).
A more complete list including earlier decades can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll .
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M$Common Sense.
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M$I would say that there are three disasters in the making for this decade, and perhaps a few decades previous, that dwarf anything else we have seen in the history of human civilization. And all three are our own doing...
1. An unprecedented increase in fossil fuel use that has already resulted in significant Global Warming
Thomas Friedman makes a convincing argument that the same recklessness that caused the recent meltdown of the global financial markets is causing the literal meltdown of the planet. Authorities such as the IPCC have provided ample evidence that the effects on the planet's energy balance are important contributing factors in the size and power of the storms that opher described.
http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Flat-Crowded-Revolution-America/dp/0374166854
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded
2. The accumulation of massive amounts of waste material that are polluting our habitats and destroying the habits of the other species on the planet.
"Vision 2050" argues that the combination of increasing population and increasing affluence together with a globalized "disposable" society has resulted in an unprecedented rate of resource depletion (particularly oil) and waste generation. Every artifact has a lifespan, which means that we will soon need to come up with dump sites the size of cities to hold all of the waste that will be produced from demolition of buildings and urban infrastructure!
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n1x671/?p=9fd09c47611d44e7a339df6a97cfc8d3&pi=1
http://www.springerlink.com/content/g5518444wp0n62lh/fulltext.pdf
3. Depletion of resources upon which our civilization is fundamentally dependent, such as oil reserves and deep aquifers, well beyond sustainability levels.
"Vision 2050" argues that our oil reserves will not last to the end of the 21st century. And in "Plan B", Lester Brown showed how the application of more powerful pumping technologies has enabled people, particularly in water-starved Northern China, to exhaust the deep aquifers that were our water savings account.
http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/books/pb/pb_table_of_contents
My own thoughts and readings.
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M$
Thanks for the comment @audiobooks1! Let's indeed hope for something good to come out of the Copenhagen congress for climate change. But (as I'm sure you will agree!) we must not lose sight of the other potential "disasters" ahead...
@eskay, this is a great answer! When talking about disasters, we allways seem to think something that happens to us. We forget what we ourselves do, maybe less spectacular seen as single, individual actions, but seen as a global mass movement, the disaster we bring upon ourselves is massive.
Problem is, we don't want to see it (me included). We still drive in cars, even though we might try to walk or take a bike sometimes instead. We still burn too much fuel by using too much electricity, by heating or cooling our houses. We buy stuff that is wrapped in tons of plastic, because it's convenient etc....
Unless we drastically change our way of life (and that will be less comfortable) we are headed straight for the wall, at well over 200 miles per hour - and we do it with our eyes wide open. Look at the Copenhagen congress to do something about climate change.....
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M$
This is copied verbatim from Wikipedia and other websites and does not come remotely close to answering the question. Why do such a thing?
hmmm
WELL!
I'd say that about covers it then!
Well done!