Human and Natural Disasters

Human activities are largely involved in the formation of some natural disasters, while not involved in the formation of some others.

As we all know, it is obvious that humans have nothing to do with the formation of volcano eruptions or earthquakes. But some other disasters, for instance, sandstorms, are related to human activities. Overgrazing and overcutting ruin vegetation, in turn causing desertification. When sands meet a windstorm, a sandstorm comes into being. Another instance is acid rain. Waste gas produced in industry activities, mostly in thermal powering, goes up to the clouds. It then blends with the water vapors. As a result, the rain from the clouds becomes acid, doing a lot of harm to humans, animals, plants, etc.

Therefore, we humans should actively take action to prevent the disasters which are mainly caused by us from happening. Education should be implemented to let more people realize the harm they are doing to the nature. Laws should be made and harsh supervision should be conducted to ensure no overgrazing or overcutting. Technologies that enable us to gain power while doing no harm to nature, such as transforming solar energy to electricity, should also be developed with exertion.

We should also actively deal with the disasters of which the formation does not involve human activities. Education is also important here. Comparing the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, why did a much heavier earthquake cause a much slighter consequence in death numbers? One of the factors is people in Chile are well educated about how to survive earthquakes, while people in Haiti are not. Technologies are important as well. With better technology, we can develop more effective methods of surviving, forecasting and maybe even controlling the disasters.

To sum up, humans are responsible for a certain portion of natural disasters. We should positively deal with natural disasters in order to survive. Actions should be taken both as not to cause disasters ourselves and to reduce damage disasters can deal.

2010-08-27