The Economist: Weather-Related Disasters Are Increasing

Texas, India and Niger confront record flooding, and in Houston, the fourth largest US city, nearly 50 inches of rain fell after Hurricane Harvey landed. According to the United Nations’s disaster-monitoring system, the United States “sits alongside China and India in suffering the greatest number of natural disasters globally between 1995 and 2015. These include earthquakes, storms, floods and heatwaves that either cause at least ten deaths, affect more than 100 people or prompt the declaration of a national emergency.” The number of global disasters has quadrupled to 400 per year since 1970. However, as the number of natural disasters continues to rise, fewer deaths result. A recent article in the Economist reports, “In 1970, 200,000 people perished annually. That figure has been dramatically reduced, thanks to safety measures such as improved buildings and flood-prevention schemes.” In addition, the best urban planners prepare for the worst, investing in new technologies and offering suggestions for new regulations and building codes, even as the world enters a new era of multiple and extreme natural disasters. -YaleGlobal