Title: Explainer: are natural disasters on the rise?
Headings: Explainer: are natural disasters on the rise?
Explainer: are natural disasters on the rise?
Natural disasters are not so ‘natural’
Disasters don’t need to happen
Who or what can we blame?
The poor are hardest hit by disasters
Humans are responsible

Content: March 24, 2015 3.12pm EDT
Cyclone Lam, Pam and now Nathan – natural disasters have filled our news in recent weeks. They wreak havoc in poor and vulnerable communities and cost billions in recovery and aid funding. These disasters happen when a natural hazard – such as a cyclone, bushfire or earthquake – damages human systems. They seem to be becoming more frequent and worse – but are they really? Natural disasters are not so ‘natural’
Some natural hazards occur because of forces outside our control. For example, the movement of Earth’s crustal plates triggers earthquakes and tsunamis. Variation in solar radiation entering the atmosphere and oceans triggers storms in the summertime and blizzards in winter. The movement of energy in Earth’s system is what drives these natural processes. Despite these normal processes, experts now say there is no such thing as “natural disasters”, for three reasons. First, humanity is interfering with the Earth system.