Risk of Natural Disasters Tied to Urban Growth

Two new studies have revealed that more people now face damage than ever before on account of earthquakes, droughts, floods and other disasters. And, this is mainly owing to a sharp rise in urban populations in developing countries.

According to one of the studies— conducted by the United Nations and titled the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, smaller or poorer countries could be destroyed by disasters which would relatively affect little those places that are protected by size or wealth.

The study compared, for example, the impact of cyclones in the Philippines and Japan. While more people in Japan are exposed to cyclones, the estimated annual death toll from cyclones is 17 times higher in the Philippines!

The second study— conducted by the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction, a grouping of private non-governmental groups, says that some isolated examples where communities acting on their own have found ways to lessen losses from disasters. However, the study warned that many governments were not even now making sufficient efforts to tackle catastrophes.

According to experts, the report prepared by the United Nations is the “the most ambitious effort ever to compare data on all kinds and scales of disasters against population and economic trends.”

Could overpopulation be the roots of all evil going on today? And do we have the solutions for it?

[NYTimes] Image via worldresourceinstitute

Share

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.