Natural Disasters

Share What will Mother Nature (or man) give us this year? 


To name just a few, in 2011, we saw:

Photo: Tim Musson

Earthquakes in Argentina, Chile, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tonga, Burma, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Sulawesi, Fiji, Turkey, New Zealand, with the one in Japan resulting in a catastrophic tsunami.

Floods in the US, Australia, Philippines, Thailand and even in Singapore.


Droughts in East Africa, Texas (US) and the Danube River being at its lowest levels in 60 years!


According to an article in Nature, the 2011 natural disasters around the world caused a record US$380 billion in economic losses.  This is double that of 2010!  Furthermore,  weather (causing floods & droughts) "accounted for about 90% of the year’s 820 recorded natural disasters, which caused at least 27,000 deaths".   Based on IPCC's report in Nov last year, I think we can expect even more weird and extreme weather in the future - "It is “virtually certain” — meaning 99–100% probability in IPCC terminology — that the twenty-first century will see an increase in the frequency and magnitude of warm temperature extremes and a decrease in cold extremes."