Originally published February 13 2006
Health official says there were only unnatural disasters in 2005
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Ciro Ugarte, regional director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), argues that the natural disasters of 2005 were actually unnatural, brought on by destructive human activities like deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.
The high death toll in 2005 from tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, mudslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, locusts and pandemics can not be blamed entirely on natural disaster, the United Nations health agency said in a year end statement.
The World Health Organization (WHO) blames a wide variety of factors for last year's high death toll - climate change, global warming influenced by human behavior, socioeconomic factors causing poorer people to live in risky areas, and inadequate disaster preparedness and education on the part of governments as well as the general population.
"I don't like to use the term natural disasters," said Ciro Ugarte, regional advisor for emergency preparedness and disaster relief with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington, DC.
dead Two girls were killed where they were caught in the tsunami wave that struck the east coast of India December 26, 2004.
Famine struck after crops were destroyed by locusts in Niger, and in El Salvador a volcanic eruption was followed by Hurricane Stan.
Dr. Ugarte observed that in 2005, several earthquakes that struck in South America were of a higher magnitude than the one that devastated northern Pakistan and parts of India in October, but these hit sparsely populated areas and so they caused less damage.
In Haiti, where storms, flooding and mudslides were deadly last year, many of the hillsides show the devastating long-term effects of deforestation.
In Europe, experts believe that countries such as France and Germany are more adversely affected by floods today than in the past because major rivers, such as the Rhine, have been straightened to ease commercial traffic.
In its World Disasters Report 2005, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies notes that a simple phone call saved thousands of lives when the giant tsunami waves hit India in 2004.
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