News tagged with catastrophes
UN warns of 'megadisasters' linked to climate change
The United Nations on Tuesday raised the prospect of "megadisasters" affecting millions of people in some of the world's biggest cities unless more is done to heed the threat of climate change.
Jun 17, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (59) |
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A Lawyer's View of the Risk of Black Hole Catastrophe at the LHC
(PhysOrg.com) -- Just bringing up the topic of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) creating a black hole that destroys the Earth might seem unscientific and out of place on a science news website. After all, the ...
Jan 22, 2010 |
4.1 / 5 (43) |
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Russia in secret plan to save Earth from asteroid: official
Russian scientists will soon meet in secret to work on a plan for saving Earth from a possible catastrophic collision with a giant asteroid in 26 years, the head of Russia's space agency said Wednesday.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 30, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (33) |
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Geologist investigates canyon carved in just three days in Texas flood
In the summer of 2002, a week of heavy rains in Central Texas caused Canyon Lake -- the reservoir of the Canyon Dam -- to flood over its spillway and down the Guadalupe River Valley in a planned diversion ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 20, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (28) |
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Possible trigger for volcanic 'super-eruptions' found
The "super-eruption" of a major volcanic system occurs about every 100,000 years and is considered one of the most catastrophic natural events on Earth, yet scientists have long been unsure about what triggers ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 12, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (22) |
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Scientists must leave the ivory tower and become advocates, or civilization is endangered, says Stanford biologist
Scientists, especially ecologists, have to be more active in explaining the meaning of their research results to the public if human behavior is going to change in time to prevent a planetary catastrophe, ...
Aug 12, 2011 |
4 / 5 (21) |
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New evidence argues against prehistoric extraterrestrial impact event
(Phys.org) -- Evidence used to support a possible extraterrestrial impact event is likely the result of natural processes, according to a new collaborative study led by U.S. Geological Survey scientists.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 23, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (17) |
3
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Massive volcanoes, meteorite impacts delivered one-two death punch to dinosaurs: study
(PhysOrg.com) -- A cosmic one-two punch of colossal volcanic eruptions and meteorite strikes likely caused the mass-extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period that is famous for killing the dinosaurs ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 17, 2011 |
5 / 5 (10) |
11
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Catastrophic Darkness: How Life Survives an Asteroid Impact
A dinosaur-killing asteroid may have wiped out much of life on Earth 65 million years ago, but now scientists have discovered how smaller organisms might have survived in the darkness following such a catastrophic ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Sep 10, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
0
Space junk raises risks for Hubble repair mission
(AP) -- Space shuttle Atlantis is now in a rough orbital neighborhood - a place littered with thousands of pieces of space junk zipping around the Earth at nearly 20,000 mph. There are more pieces of shattered ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 12, 2009 |
2.9 / 5 (8) |
9
Volcanic destruction? Not always
For many, the story of Pompeii defines what happens when a volcano erupts: It destroys everything in its path and kills everyone who cannot escape.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 02, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (4) |
0
Crews struggle to clear toxic Hungary sludge flood
(AP) -- There was no stopping the avalanche of toxic red sludge when it rammed into Kati Holtzer's home: It smashed through the main door and trapped the woman and her 3-year-old boy in a churning sea of ...
Oct 06, 2010 |
5 / 5 (3) |
0
Australia issues 'catastrophic' alerts as fires rage
Australia has issued "catastrophic" alerts after record-breaking temperatures and wild lightning storms sparked more than 100 fires across the country, officials said Saturday.
Nov 21, 2009 |
4 / 5 (3) |
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Maybe Ben Franklin was wrong: A volcanic eruption, climate fluctuations and the frigid winter of 1783-84
The eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland in 1783-84 set off a cascade of catastrophe, spewing sulfuric clouds into Europe and eventually around the world. Poisonous mists and a resulting famine from loss ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 21, 2011 |
4 / 5 (3) |
0
New ways of measuring catastrophic risks may enhance Air Force efforts
Noted Air Force Office of Scientific Research-funded researcher, Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky is pioneering a new approach for measuring, anticipating and managing catastrophic risks, sometimes called "Black ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 31, 2010 |
2.8 / 5 (4) |
0
Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be ostensively defined as any tragic event with great loss stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions.
In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of hazards and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability are not considered a disaster, as is the case in uninhabited regions.
Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by disasters occur in developing countries and underdeveloped countries, and losses due to natural disasters are 20 times greater (as a percentage of GDP) in developing countries than in industrialized countries.
For more information about Disaster, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
