Do you know how many natural disasters happen every year all over the world? Don’t be surprised when reading this article! The number of natural disasters increases over the decades: Average 300 natural disasters were recorded in 1980s, 480 ones in 1990s and 620 annual in the past 10 years (1) . And you can easily to recognize that natural disasters are becoming more and more intense by the time. Let me tell you some examples.
The biggest tsunami in 40 recent years occurred in Indian Ocean on Dec 26th 2004. It began from a seabed earthquake with 9.0 magnitude and lasted during 600 sec. Then, a chain of deadly tsunami were activated and spread throughout Indian Ocean, while its 100 ft waves destroyed the whole coastal communities of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other nearby areas. The number of deaths was up to 150,000 people, which made this disaster become one of the most serious natural disasters in the modern world history. According to experts, this tsunami next also activated a lot of earthquakes all over the world, including Alaska area.(2)
In 2007, there are 874 disasters all over the world, 13% higher than 2006. (3)
Especially in 2010, series of horrible disasters were said to threaten the future of human development and caused the most severe consequences. First of all, unusual droughts not only affected seriously the lives of 65 million people living along Mekong River, whose water rate was the lowest in 20 years, but also stagnated several important traffic activities on Asian waterway. In addition, the two earthquakes with magnitude over 10 in Haiti and Chile have ever become the strongest ones which broke down the most sustained structures in these countries. Their aftershocks spread throughout Africa and South America, while the number of lost reached to 223,000 people and two countries’ loss was estimated up to over 30 billion USD. It is a mistake if I forget to mention the forest fire in Russia in August, 2010. After the hottest heat wave of Russian history, a fire began in the Central and then quickly spread to the South, which damaged 10-12 million hectares of forests. At the same time, a flood in Pakistan destroyed in large-scale, killed 1,600 people, influenced the lives of 20 million people and triggered off diseases and several riots of violence. And so on.(4)
Now, we are in 2012, the year was predicted as the end of the world by many tribes, bibles, theologians, prophets and also scientists. The nature seems to anger with our world. Have you ever wondered that “Is the doomsday coming as the prophecy?”
CIted sources:
(1) & (3): According to “Weather-related Disasters Dominate” of Petra Löw: http://vitalsigns.worldwatch.org/vs-trend/weather-related-disasters-dominate
(2): According to “The Deadliest Tsunami in History” on National Geographic News: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1227_041226_tsunami.html
(4): According to “Top 10 Disasters Top 10 Disasters around the World in 2010” by Nikita Porwal: http://www.techprone.com/top-10-disasters-around-the-world-in-2010
