Environmental Studies/PHS 100A
Warner Pacific
August 7, 2014
While I was doing research for this
paper it crossed my mind how many near misses of disasters I have been in; this
lead to wondering if there was an increase in disasters or not. In 1979 I was
with the US Army stationed in Leavenworth, Kansas-right in the midst of what is
nicknamed “Tornado Alley”, 1980 saw me getting married in Lakewood, Washington
2 weeks after Mt. St. Helen’s blew, 1989 was a year that a 6.7 earthquake
happened in Los Angeles while I was living in San Diego, and just recently I
was living in Florida for 2 years 2012-2013 during hurricane season. Thankfully
I was not hurt in any of these, but just on the fringe where I got the effects
of each disaster, but not the trauma of it.
Disasters
are split into three different categories:
·
Geophysical-earthquakes,
volcanoes, rock falls, landslides & avalanches.
·
Climate
related-floods, storm surge & coastal flooding.
·
Meteorological-storms,
tropical cyclones, local storms, heat/cold waves, drought & wildfires.
“According
to the New England Journal of Medicine, the scale of disasters has expanded,
owing to increased rates of urbanization, deforestation, environmental
degradation and to intensifying climate variable, such as higher temperatures,
extreme precipitation and more violent wind/water storms”. (Steady
Increase in….. 2013, November 15). An article in Epic Disasters says, there is
not an increase in disasters, it’s basically that our monitoring equipment has
gotten better and more sensitive It pointed out in 1920 there were 500, 00
people living on the Florida coast whereas
now there is 13 million. In 1925 there were 625 casualties from a tornado
compared to the 22 deaths in 2005.
In 1931 there were 350 seismograph and now there is 8,000 stations
detecting earthquakes. And, of course the media and communications systems have
improved alongside
the detecting systems.
The Trumpet
reports, “The evidence of natural disasters has risen dramatically over the
past 20 years. To close observers of current events in relation to both History
and Bible prophecy, this is no mere coincidence. What muddies the water as soon as Bible prophecy is
mentioned in relation to natural disasters is the fact that there is a literal
abundance of kooks, screwballs and fanatics out there who instantly seize on
the latest catastrophe to declare “the end is nigh” (Fraser, R. 2010, March 3).
Bible prophecies speak of the world reaching a time when catastrophic events
that were once delayed would be fulfilled for a greater purpose. The events
were predestined to allow a greater purpose to happen. It is all just a matter
of perception then?
Image below courtesy
of EM-DAT International Disaster Database, Center for Research on Epidemiology
of Disasters, University of Louvain.
References
Epic Disasters: The World's Worst Disasters. (2009, January
1). Retrieved from
http://www.epicdisasters.com/index.php/site/comments/has_there_been_an_increase_in_the_number_of_natural_disasters/
Fraser, R. (2010, March 3). Why Have Natural Disasters
Increased? Retrieved from
http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/7020.28734.0.0/world/environment/why-have-natural-disasters-increased
Steady Increase in Climate Related Natural Disasters. (2013,
November 15). Retrieved from
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/climatechange/steady-increase-in-climate-rel/19974069
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