PDF Natural Disasters Are Not Natural!

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Technology is not going to save us. Structures were often informally constructed in an ad-hoc manner and some buildings were built on slopes with insufficient foundations or steel supports. In international forums we now see a fairly good representation of stakeholders from various sections of society. But these 4, Cambodian families are not unique. Disasters seemed to be everywhere in They are already marginalised in their societies based on class, gender, religion, ethnicity and disability. In the years that followed, the county would also build nursing homes for the elderly along the shore, and group homes for recently released mental health patients.

The explanation is simple: Earthquakes, droughts, floods, storms, landslides and volcanic eruptions are natural hazards; they lead to deaths and damages — i. The Haiti earthquake in was particularly devastating due to the extensive damages caused to the built environment, which largely resulted from a low quality building stock and lack of enforced building standards.

Structures were often informally constructed in an ad-hoc manner and some buildings were built on slopes with insufficient foundations or steel supports. In contrast, the Chilean Maule earthquake that occurred one month after the Haiti earthquake was a higher magnitude 8. Mw event but it killed far fewer people deaths in Chile compared to approximately , , deaths in Haiti.

This significant difference is commonly attributed to more sophisticated building codes in Chile that incorporate seismic design and the historic enforcement of those codes. A hazard becomes a disaster because its impact threatens the lives and livelihoods of people. The Haiti earthquake in was particularly devastating due to extensive damage which largely resulted from a low quality building stock.

A disaster does not happen unless people and cities are vulnerable due to marginalisation, discrimination, and inequitable access to resources, knowledge and support. These vulnerabilities are further — intentionally or unintentionally — enhanced by deforestation, rapid urbanisation, environmental degradation, and climate change. Moreover, vulnerabilities are too often enhanced not because the information about dealing with hazards does not exist, but because decision makers and those responsible for the development of the built environment do not use this information appropriately or at all.

For example, 30 years of hydropower development in Vietnam has displaced thousands, degraded the environment and forced many ethnic minority communities into an ever more tenuous situation. Although these most marginalised people are routinely killed during disasters, the development approach is not altered. But this situation is also pertinent in the high-income countries. In England in the last 30 years nearly one in ten new houses have been built in areas with known high flood.

Hurricane Harvey also presented a prime example of this: Neoliberal reforms have been a great motivator for the intense growth in urban populations and have produced an ideological trilogy of competition, deregulation and privatisation. Such ideology is hostile to all forms of spatial regulation, including urban and regional planning, environmental policy and economic development policies.

Much has been done in many countries around the world. But is it enough? How can we improve upon our efforts and ensure that all development planning is risk-informed? How can we make sure that building codes are enforced everywhere? Are we up to the challenge? Climate change and disaster risk reduction Blog post Martin Ras Urbanization Sustainable development Disaster risk management Disaster risk reduction blog series.

Home Blog 5 18 Natural-disasters-don-t-exist-but-natural-hazards-do. Our Perspectives Return to Our Perspectives home page.

What we call “natural” disasters are not natural at all | Jo Scheuer | UNDP

About us News Centre Funding Partners. And this is in a United States territory. Many see Puerto Rico as an opportunity. There are always those who try to profit from the misery.

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In Vietnam, where I work extensively, dozens of lives were lost in when the country experienced a series of cyclones coupled with heavy rainfall. But those natural triggers could not have done so much damage without the exploitation of nature for development, poverty and inequality, the displacement of minority groups to prone locations, poor land use planning and substandard housing. In February Chile experienced an 8.

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Sadly people were killed. A month earlier Haiti had experienced a 7. Although the Chile earthquake was much larger, the big difference in these cases was peoples' vulnerability. Because of how an earthquake impacts buildings, the seismic design incorporated in Chile's building codes saved lives.

Natural disasters don’t exist but natural hazards do

In Haiti, the first free black republic and the first country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery, survived hundreds of years of exploitation and imperialism, but one of the legacies of this historical oppression is that access to opportunities and resources are extremely limited. The buildings in Haiti were in a very poor state when the earthquake struck. These living conditions are not choices that vulnerable people actually make. They are conditions that are imposed on them.

The media, politicians, the scientific community and even victims themselves often attribute disaster impacts to the wrath of nature. We need to be really careful with the language that we use here. Go with what is familiar, even if it is misleading. But is this necessary? Should we not give people credit for their critical capacities. Vulnerability is situated firmly in the historical process of development. I have a bit of a theory about what is going on here.

Disasters are not natural

Many experts find the discussion of structural injustice quite unappealing. They are often employed by or receive funding from the governments, organisations, corporations and foundations that uphold the status quo. They urge us not to make it political.

But disasters cannot be depoliticised. And with knowledge comes a responsibility to communicate accurately about the real causes of the pain and destruction that disasters inflict. In , we saw significant global frameworks on climate change, on sustainable development and on disaster risk reduction.

Why natural disasters aren't all that natural

“For the past five decades or so, social scientists studying disasters have disputed that disasters are not 'natural,' but socially constructed. Calling them 'natural disasters' artificially naturalises the harms they it becomes clearer why so many argue that disasters are not natural.

This is a global commitment to adhere to certain principles in order to reduce disaster risk. In international forums we now see a fairly good representation of stakeholders from various sections of society. Brought together are government representatives, the scientific community, NGOs, UN bodies, the community activists.