~Natural Disasters~

[Dabs]

I keep thinking about all the natural destructions that have been taking place lately.
We have had many many tornadoes around...we have had major flooding...there are hurricanes and tsunamis worldwide.....earthquakes worldwide.
Do you think all this is happening more and more??
Or has it always been happening, it's just the news is bringing if forth more often??
I feel like a lot of shitty stuff is going on, everywhere.

 

[dilloduck]

Are you afflicted with terminal nosey ?

 

[Dabs]

Are you making fun of me??

 

[dilloduck]

Are you making fun of me??

of course

 

[uscitizen]

Accroding to the "experts" we will see more weather related disasters as the climate changes.

We will also see more damage and suffering as we become more populous.

 

[syrenn]

I keep thinking about all the natural destructions that have been taking place lately.
We have had many many tornadoes around...we have had major flooding...there are hurricanes and tsunamis worldwide.....earthquakes worldwide.
Do you think all this is happening more and more??
Or has it always been happening, it's just the news is bringing if forth more often??
I feel like a lot of shitty stuff is going on, everywhere.

Its been happening since the beginning of he world. Nothing new here.

 

[Dabs]

Are you making fun of me??

of course

Well stop it, or I'll.......I'll......be mean to you

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right, just like it says inna Bible - it's the end times...

Study: Climate-related Disasters on Rise
September 24, 2015 — A new report finds most natural disasters in 2014 were climate-related.

The 2015 World Disasters Report, issued Thursday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, say climate change will lead to an increase in the frequency and severity of future hazards. Compared to previous years, 2014 was in many ways a statistically better year in regard to global disasters. The latest report cites 317 disasters worldwide, the lowest number of the decade or 17 percent below the average.

Lead editor of the report, Mo Hamza, says nearly 107 million people were affected by these disasters. He acknowledges this is a relative increase on the previous year. “But, this number is still well below the highest number of disasters in the past decade, which occurred in 2005 when a total of 810 disasters were reported," he said. "In 2014, disasters caused 8,186 deaths worldwide. Nevertheless, the mortality level was almost 90 percent lower than the decade's average.”

Satellite image released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows Hurricane Danny over the Atlantic Ocean

Asia is the most disaster-prone region in the world. The report finds 48 percent of all disasters occurred in Asia in 2014. More than 85 percent of those killed and affected globally also were in Asia. The report ranks China as the world’s most disaster-affected country in the world, noting 731 people were killed in an earthquake in August 2014. It says drought, storms and flooding affected more than 58 million people in China.

Hamza tells VOA 87 percent of global disasters were climate-related, continuing a 20-year trend of climate-related disasters. “There is no doubt that extreme events impacted by climate change in terms of frequency and magnitude, that is no longer in doubt," he said. "But what matters as much is how vulnerable populations are in the hot spots, that is in low-lying deltas and in coastal zones, for example.”

The report shows floods and landslides accounted for nearly half of all natural disasters in 2014 and were responsible for 63 percent of disaster-affected deaths. It cites floods in India, Pakistan, and the Balkans among the most severe. It calls the impact of drought, which affected 39 percent of all people last year, a disaster often overlooked by the more visually dramatic floods. Yet, it says this forgotten, silent disaster severely affects the economic well-being of millions of people, especially in the Sahel region of Africa. The report estimates economic losses in 2014 at $99.2 billion, well below the annual average of $147 billion seen during the past 10 years.

Study: Climate-related Disasters on Rise

 

[Delta4Embassy]

I keep thinking about all the natural destructions that have been taking place lately.
We have had many many tornadoes around...we have had major flooding...there are hurricanes and tsunamis worldwide.....earthquakes worldwide.
Do you think all this is happening more and more??
Or has it always been happening, it's just the news is bringing if forth more often??
I feel like a lot of shitty stuff is going on, everywhere.

As has been said before, "Just because people are around more now to see it doesn't mean it's happening more often."

What we call natural disasters are a natural function of the planet. As our species comes to occupy more of the planet, someone's gonna run into these things more and more often. But without hurricanes and the like, we wouldn't even exist. Hurricanes move heat around the planet. Without them there'd likely be no life at all as parts of the planet would be uninhabitable due to excessive heat.
Floods are the result of paving over the natural earth which woulda absorbed the excess water. Tornadoes are the result of putting cities and population cneters right smack dab in the area where opposing winds meet then stupidly building above ground structures to be destroyed each year fromt he msot predictable natural calamity.

Earthquakes happen because our planet isn't static but dynamic. Because all the planet's land is in motion, there are going to be snags and releases of those snags ala earthquakes. Tsunamis are what comes from the majority of the planet choosing to live too-near the ocean in seismicly-active regions.

Nothing happening right now is unusual unless you've chosen to remain ignorant about this sort of thing. Watch an hour of the Weather Channel and you'll be sorted out.

 

[waltky]

Would have come in handy in the Nepal and Haiti earthquakes...

New Algorithm Boosts Crowd-sourced Maps for Natural Disasters
November 30, 2016 — Humanitarian workers delivering aid to regions hit by natural disasters might find it a little easier to reach people most in need of help following new advances in crowd-sourced mapping technology, researchers said on Wednesday.

Traditional maps often do not give rescue workers the information they need when disasters strike, such as which buildings and bridges have been destroyed. Crowd-mapping, where volunteers on the ground send real-time information about which roads are open and where people could be trapped following earthquakes or hurricanes, has become increasingly popular with aid groups, U.S. researchers said.

A Central Electric Power Association lineman pulls a new line across the debris littered lawn of a Scott County, Mississippi resident, Nov. 30, 2016, that was damaged by an apparent tornado Tuesday afternoon. With crowd-sourced mapping rescue workers will have the information they need, such as which roads, buildings and bridges have been destroyed.​

Universities create helpful algorithm

To make the mapping process more efficient, researchers at the University of California and the University of Tennessee created a new algorithm that indicates which areas need detailed mapping first after a disaster. "Online volunteers provide up-to-date geographic information that can help disaster response teams on the ground make more informed decisions," said University of Tennessee geography professor Yingjie Hu. "We wanted to make that process more efficient," Hu told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Survivor carries baby on his back as he and some 1,000 other survivors make a 9-hour walk from the village of Qingping to Hanwang, after earthquake, Sichuan Province, China​

Earthquake sparks interest

Originally from Sichuan, China, Hu began researching crowd-funded maps after a massive earthquake rocked his home province in 2008 killing more than 80,000 people. Rescuers scrambled to save survivors but their efforts were hampered in some cases by a lack of up-to-date information about which roads were open to emergency vehicles, Hu said. "If we could have applied this algorithm back then more lives could potentially have been saved," he said.

New Algorithm Boosts Crowd-sourced Maps for Natural Disasters