Society and Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are a reoccurring problem in the United States, but in the past fifty years there has been a dramatic increase. Whether it is a hurricane smashing the coastline or a tornado tearing through a town, these natural disasters are devastating to people’s lives. These natural disasters are something that people have to experience and deal with, but the main problem is that these disasters are happening more often and with greater force. In the past fifty years the amount of serious natural disasters has almost doubled. The United States has seen about a forty percent increase in the past fifty years (Low, 2009). The question that arises is how much of a role does society play in these increases? The magnitude and frequency of natural disasters has increased drastically over the last fifty years due to global warming, over development in hazardous areas, and exploitation of natural resources, all of which are human factors.

Natural disasters have increased both in size and in repetitions, one main reason for this is global warming. Some gases can be released naturally through animals, plants, waste, etc. but the biggest contributor would be humans. Many gases that are lethal to the environment are being released in massive amounts, such as carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is one of the biggest problems that society faces in today’s world. Carbon dioxide comes from various sources, the worst sources being emissions from vehicles and factories (Mckibben, p.60, 2009). The best way to remove this problem would be to stop the exposure of CO2. In order to properly fix this problem we would have to cut CO2 emissions by almost 80 percent (Mckibben, p.50, 2006). In figure 1 the emissions of greenhouse gases from the United States is alarming. If this problem isn’t fixed, the predictions that are oncoming are overwhelming. Tomas Swetnam, a scientist from the University of Arizona, and his global research team predict that at the rate that society is releasing...