A needless toll of natural disasters

In case people haven't noticed, there has been a spike in global natural disasters. Many try to explain this away by saying we just have better reporting methods. I maintain that it is the "birth pains" talked about in the book of Matthew. I believe we are in the end times and soon the Lord will return to collect His faithful. Will you be one of them??

WHEN A MUDSLIDE in the southern Philippines wiped out the village of Guinsaugon and killed more than 1,000 people last month, it was the latest in a seeming spike in developing world natural disasters.
The numbers impacted by recent calamities are indeed staggering. The earthquake that leveled large parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir last October killed about 75,000 people, and left some 3 million homeless. About a year earlier, the Asian tsunami caused the deaths of 230,000 people and the displacement of 1.5 million. In these two tragedies, governments, international organizations, and private individuals were asked to provide urgent assistance, and they contributed some $20 billion to relief and recovery.
he bad news is that more and more people are being affected each year by natural disasters, and most of the populations are in the developing world. Since 2000, some 1.6 billion have lost their homes or livelihoods or have suffered other damage. This continues an upward trend over the past several decades and represents a four-fold annual increase, on average, from the decade of the 1970s.
In 2004 alone, disasters caused some $100 billion in damages and impacted the lives of about 140 million people.
One might reasonably take the apocalyptic perspective and conclude that this growth in damage caused by natural disasters comes from an increase in the number and magnitude of hazards like earthquakes and hurricanes. But while greater storm severity in recent decades is one risk factor, it cannot fully explain the large increase in overall effects -- especially as there is little indication of a greater incidence or severity of earthquakes and other natural hazards.
Rather, it is human behavior that is primarily responsible. Worldwide migration to coastal areas has made populations far more vulnerable to hurricanes, and nearly 50 million people worldwide face risk of flooding due to storm surges. Environmental degradation has only accentuated this problem. In some areas of Sri Lanka, for example, mangrove trees provided critical coastal defenses during the tsunami and saved many lives. But where the mangroves had been depleted, the tsunami left a path of death and destruction in its wake.
Rapid urbanization, population growth, and poverty have also contributed to increased levels of risk. There are now some 400 cities with populations of more than one million people, the overwhelming majority of which are in poor countries -- where public education on disaster preparedness is in short supply and citizens have limited ability to construct homes to meet whatever building codes may exist.
The good news is that human practices and development patterns can often be altered to prevent natural hazards from becoming full-blown natural disasters. Even when practices cannot be changed completely, there are other ways to mitigate manmade risks. These may have been the most important lessons coming out of the Asian tsunami.

Read the rest here.