Averting Unnatural Disasters

Abstract

slammed into Central America, pummeling Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala for more than a week. As the powerful storm hung over the region, it dumped as much as two meters (80 inches) of rain. By the time it turned back out to sea, some 10,000 people had died, making Mitch the deadliest Atlantic storm in 200 years. Conservative estimates place the cost of damage to the region at around $8.5 billion—higher than the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of Honduras and Nicaragua, the two nations hardest hit. The storm set back development in the region by decades.1 But Central America is not the only region to experience such devastation in recent years. In fact, the 1990s set a new record for disasters worldwide. During the decade just over $608 billion in economic losses was chalked up to natural catastrophes, more than during the previous four decades combined.2 In 1998–99 alone, over 120,000 people were killed and millions were displaced from their homes. In India, 10,000 people lost their lives in a 1998 cyclone in Gujarat; the following year as many as 50,000 died when a “supercyclone” hit Orissa. Vast forest fires raged out of control in Brazil, Indonesia, and Siberia. Devastating landslides in Venezuela caused over $3 billion in losses and took more than 30,000 lives, capping off the deadly decade.3 Ironically, the United Nations had designated the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, hoping to stem the rising toll taken by natural disasters. Instead, the 1990s may go down in history as the International Decade of Disasters, as the world experienced the most costly spate of floods, storms, earthquakes, and fires ever. Around the world, a growing share of the devastation triggered by “natural” disasters stems from ecologically destructive practices and from putting ourselves in harm’s way. Many ecosystems have been frayed to the point where they are no Janet N. Abramovitz Chapter 7