Last week’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake in New Zealand is the latest in a growing list of major natural disasters to strike this year. Just in case they’ve all begun to blend together for you as well, here’s a recap: There was the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti last January, an 8.8 magnitude quake hit Chile in February, in April a volcanic eruption in Iceland stopped international and European flights for nearly a week, July brought heavy rains and flooding to Pakistan, wildfires burned in Russia throughout August, taking pollution to five times the healthy level, and China is currently experiencing the worst flooding it has seen in two decades.
If that seems above normal, it is. For the past decade, the United Nations finds that natural disasters are typically responsible for 78,000 deaths per year. Seeing as the death toll for the Haitian earthquake was 230,000, this year was not off to a good start.
But why are all these disasters happening in the first place? During the 1960’s, there were as few as 30 natural disasters reported per year, more recently, that number is believed to be as high as 500, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. Many believe that global warming and rising ocean levels are affecting Earth’s geology. Others blame over-zealous media coverage for shining a brighter light on weather events that may have previously gone under the radar. It may also be the end of the world. Or, it may be none of the above.
President Barack Obama, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the U.N., and other climate change advocates have backed the first theory — that the sheer frequency of natural disasters is result of human-induced global warming. It’s an easy sell. The media swarms with coverage when these weather-related disasters occur, and they become a loaded weapon for climate change advocates in their argument for environmental action. But research has progressed, a scientific study from the American Meteorological Society points to other causes. People are living more closely together in cities; the tragic death toll in Port-Au-Prince following the Haitian earthquake is evidence of this. Also, people are building and expanding more stuff for nature to knock down. As seen with Hurricane Katrina, damages to New Orleans and other coastal towns are estimated at a shocking $81 billion.
These disasters are catastrophic, the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, that hit Aug. 23, 2005, should be a testament to that, but they aren’t coming more often or even getting worse. When they do happen, they just have a bigger effect on us as a bigger civilization. And sure, the media will jump all over an environmental disaster, but impending weather concerns, destruction and death should always be top headliners. It’s more unfortunate that headlines get warped and twisted into divisive political issues. Perhaps this is just election year talking head syndrome, but it seems that every time a natural disaster strikes, it becomes the next sound bite from either side on global warming when the emphasis should be on the lives both saved and lost.
Reach the reporter at swhitmir@asu.edu
