Living Car Free - Is there a sharp increase in natural disasters?

After hearing about the devastation of the Hurricane Ike, I'm beginning to grow weary of all the reporting of natural disasters that have happened this year in the US: floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wild fires in the West... this has been a difficult year.

I discovered an interesting graph at the UNEP site

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/trends-in-natural-disasters

Granted, much of this is due to better reporting... but I'm wondering if we are not seeing a trend that is really scary.

Yes, it seems like there has been a sharp increase...I'd say going back several years at least...and I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse.

After hearing about the devastation of the Hurricane Ike, I'm beginning to grow weary of all the reporting of natural disasters that have happened this year in the US: floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wild fires in the West... this has been a difficult year.

I discovered an interesting graph at the UNEP site

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/trends-in-natural-disasters

Granted, much of this is due to better reporting... but I'm wondering if we are not seeing a trend that is really scary.

Yes, I believe we are. The intensity is ramping up, the frequency is ramping up, and the cycles
are getting closer. When you see glaciers dropping tons of ice you know it's gotta affect the
whole planet unless you're in the head in the sand type.

Mother Earth has a way of correcting and healing herself and if humans don't get that Mother
Earth will just erase us and start over. It's been done many times before. :eek:

Such things aren't disasters in nature, they only become disasters after we build homes and infrastructure there. We've sprawled out a lot in the last half century. Maybe we've simply increased our exposure to natural events.

In America, there's a growing population of working poor who can't help themselves very well in tough times, and government not doing a good job of taking care of them. As we've seen in several hurricane situations, transportation infrastructure isn't efficient for handling a mass exodus anyways. On the international front, American news sources are slowly improving in their ability and desire to report on things that happen in other countries.

There are a lot of subtle things that add up, not least of which is the human mind's tendency to start spotting patterns before they even exist, and to exaggerate anything that seems to support the existence of the pattern. We don't need to start hypothesizing divine intervention or an angry personification of nature just yet.

(That said, I was never clear on whether the biblical rainbow was God's promise that He would never destroy humanity again, or would just never again destroy them with a flood...)

Those of us who are a bit older would say the extremes are little different to what was happening 40 years ago.

Play's observation is a good one.

The weather and associated events could be looked upon as a natural way of clearing away the dross and starting again or encouraging new growth and regeneration.

Having just returned from the Rockies to see the damage done by the mountain pine beetle, largely because of man's intervention to prevent fires in the forests under the spurious guise of "conservation", I can only be thankful that the nasty scientists haven't perfected a way yet of totally controlling the weather to prevent events like hurricanes, floods, and droughts.

One can only wonder why anyone would return to the area to rebuild in the SDGulf area after Katrina.

Weather is cyclic. If you dig back into the records over the years you will find definite patterns. Also as pointed out we are populating areas that had seldom been seen by man 50-75 years ago. Most southern coastal areas have seen exponential population growth over that time span. Personally I have little sympathy for people that choose to live in a known hazard area and even less for the ones that choose to ignore evacuation efforts, and then expect to be rescued from their stupidity.

Aaron:)

Those of us who are a bit older would say the extremes are little different to what was happening 40 years ago.

Play's observation is a good one.

The weather and associated events could be looked upon as a natural way of clearing away the dross and starting again or encouraging new growth and regeneration.

Having just returned from the Rockies to see the damage done by the mountain pine beetle, largely because of man's intervention to prevent fires in the forests under the spurious guise of "conservation", I can only be thankful that the nasty scientists haven't perfected a way yet of totally controlling the weather to prevent events like hurricanes, floods, and droughts.

One can only wonder why anyone would return to the area to rebuild in the SDGulf area after Katrina.For the same reasons they returned to San Francisco after the '06 quake/fire.;) I remember Tom Robbins account this in "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues". Required reading.

Such things aren't disasters in nature, they only become disasters after we build homes and infrastructure there. We've sprawled out a lot in the last half century. Maybe we've simply increased our exposure to natural events.

+1

100 years ago ... 500 years ago ... 1000 years ago ... these sorts of weather incidents would not have caused the devistation to the quantities of humans that they effect now, and so they would not have, or might not have, entered the stories.

+1

100 years ago ... 500 years ago ... 1000 years ago ... these sorts of weather incidents would not have caused the devistation to the quantities of humans that they effect now, and so they would not have, or might not have, entered the stories.

Broadcasting video tape around the planet helps to decimate the information too.

Broadcasting video tape around the planet helps to decimate the information too.

What was it Will Rogers said about learning...“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”-Will Rogers

Apparently even some people don't learn from "peeing on the fence":roflmao2: I was offered a job that would have required relocation to the coast of Florida. I passed. I spend a fair amount of my work time in the hurricane zone, during hurricane season I am ready to leave on a moment's notice. I keep emergency supplies AND a bicycle close by and will leave before they tell me to.

Aaron:)

Is there a sharp increase in natural disasters?
No but there is a sharp increase in population and also a sharp increase in reporting disasters. The last numbers I could find was a doubling of world population in 38 years up until the year 2000. It is expected to double again in much less time than that.


Weather is cyclic. If you dig back into the records over the years you will find definite patterns. Also as pointed out we are populating areas that had seldom been seen by man 50-75 years ago. Most southern coastal areas have seen exponential population growth over that time span. Personally I have little sympathy for people that choose to live in a known hazard area and even less for the ones that choose to ignore evacuation efforts, and then expect to be rescued from their stupidity.

Aaron:)

I would like to know where the non-hazard areas are. I have lived all over the US and in Mexico and I have yet to find a place that doesn't have a hazard. Earth is a hazardous place to live.

As far as being stupid for ignoring evacuation efforts. In my area there were predictions on TV that there would be more deaths from the evacuation than from the hurricane. I believe that turned out to be true. Please don't expect me to give times, officials and media that made these predictions as I was rather busy at the time preparing to stay. If a person calculates that it is more dangerous to leave than to stay than I would think leaving is pretty stupid.

If a person has no car or no money and can not leave then I guess you could say they are stupid for having no money but it has been my experience that not all poor people are stupid. Most of those who stayed in New Orleans for "Katrina" had no other option. I have neighbors that can't afford to fill the tank on their old cars during good times so leaving would have put them on the side of the road 100 miles from here and still in the path of the storm. I would rather die at home thank you. In any event this area ran out of gas and tankers stopped coming early on so no more gas until after the hurricane.

And yes I would expect to be rescued if need be just as I would expect people who live in Nebraska would expect to be rescued if they ran out of fuel oil in a blizzard. They know a blizzard is coming so they are knowingly staying in a hazardous area. How about the entire state of California? I would say that it is a pretty hazardous area. All of it and those people all know it yet they stay. I know that every time I get into a vehicle or ride my bike out where vehicles prowl I knowingly go into a very dangerous place where the probability is very high that I will be killed or maimed yet I go anyway. If there is trouble I expect to be rescued if possible.

Like I said "Earth is a hazardous place" and we rescue each other even the stupid.
Now I have to bo out and run my chainsaw which is far more hazardous than sitting out a hurricane.:notamused:

I know that every time I get into a vehicle or ride my bike out where vehicles prowl I knowingly go into a very dangerous place where the probability is very high that I will be killed or maimed yet I go anyway. If there is trouble I expect to be rescued if possible.

I'd have to disagree... the probability that you'll be killed or maimed is VERY low.

oldfool,
I am in particular talking about the people that stayed on the islands near Galveston. At the height of the storm they were calling for rescue. Sorry they were warned! and the government provided transportation away from the area. Every area has it's hazards, but hurricanes give warning and can be evacuated from. If you look at population trends over the past 20-30 years a sizable amount of the growth has been along the southern coasts...hurricane alley.

Aaron:)

Such things aren't disasters in nature, they only become disasters after we build homes and infrastructure there. We've sprawled out a lot in the last half century. Maybe we've simply increased our exposure to natural events.

+1. I have walked in forested areas that have been hit by massive tornadoes. You see incredible destruction as trees are uprooted and twisted in half. However, you don't hear about those tornadoe touchdowns on the news because there was no loss of homes or deaths.

When you see glaciers dropping tons of ice you know it's gotta affect the
whole planet unless you're in the head in the sand type.


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