With the string of calamities that took place in Asia and other parts of the globe, it begs the question whether humans should be blamed in the terrifying destructions caused by Mother Nature. We investigate!

Typhoons lashing at the Philippines. A tsunami engulfing Samoa. Flash floods sweeping Turkey and India. Earthquakes rocking Indonesia. These recent calamities happened within a span of a month, leading some people to think whether the abuse humans has inflicted on the environment is finally taking its toll. Can some of these natural disasters have been, in fact, brought about by humans?

Not so, says US Geological Survey director Chip Groat. It only seems that the catastrophes are happening in a bigger scale because of the growing population of the planet, with people forced to move “onto areas that are vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, and other natural hazards."

This unchecked migration of people to threatened areas is blamed for the recent flooding of Metro Manila in the Philippines. Architect and urban planner Felino Palafox has claimed that it had warned the government that rapid urbanization in key areas such as the Markina Valley, thoroughly devastated by typhoon Ondoy (international: Ketsana), may lead to grave outcomes.

“Some are saying it’s [the flooding of key Metropolitan Manila areas] an act of God. It’s not. It’s neglect on the part of the government,” the architect told the local daily, BusinessMirror. “Because the recommendation was not heeded, what occurred was virtually a massacre.”

Destroyed car. On Monday the 12th May, an earthquake hit the province of Sichuan causing 50000 deaths. Yingxiu, Sichuan, China, 19th May 2008

Apart from faulty urban planning, other factors blamed for the scale of the calamity and the great loss of lives are environmental degradation, corruption and lack of political will. In Pedang, Indonesia, for example, geologists have long predicted that the city is bound to experience a major temblor and yet, the government still allowed nearly million people to live in buildings that are not quake-proof.

Human-induced earthquake

Not being able to predict the exact day and time of a natural disaster may simply be a failure of foresight but can humans directly, or indirectly, cause what looks like an act of God? In 1976, a Chinese geologist supposedly sent a letter to the then China’s Premier Wen Jiabao, saying that Sichuan might experience an earthquake due to “induced seismicity,” from the building of a dam.

More than two decades later, his prediction came true. One of the deadliest earthquakes that ever rocked China, claiming about 80,000 lives, happened in Sichuan. “Dams have been implicated in reservoir-induced seismicity, and there is a vigorous debate whether Zipingpu dam may have triggered the Wenchuan Earthquake,” says Nicholas Sitar, professor of geoengineering and an expert on seismology at the University of California, Berkeley. “However, the larger picture is that strain has been building up in that region, and the quake was probably overdue.”

Many are left homeless after the tsunami wave swept through this village. This picture depicts the rubble that was left behind. Indonesia

Science weighs in

Weather measurements reveal that the percentage of hurricanes reaching categories 4 or 5 (defined as having wind speeds above 56 meters per second) in the United States has escalated through the decades, climbing 35 percent in the last ten years. In this century, it is reported that precipitation, one of the factors building up hurricanes, has increased by seven percent. A Katrina-like devastation in New Orleans is likely to happen again.

But scientists are divided on the issue of whether global warming, due to carbon emissions released by humans in the atmosphere, is destroying weather patterns. The World Meteorological Organization explains that though data show an increase in the number of hurricane activities in the last decade, a variety of factors may have caused it, adding that “no individual tropical cyclone can be directly attributed to climate change.”

Painful lessons to be learned

Given that natural disasters are still bound to be a part of our day-to-day life, experts agree that the loss of lives can be minimized, if not totally avoided by creating reforms on how we build our cities and respond to disasters. According to Rafael Senga of the World Wildlife Fund, governments should now address the issues of deforestation, environmental degradation and climate change. “It's a combination of factors that can lead to a perfect storm for disaster in the region,” he says.

A house totally destroyed on Lake Pontchatrain near New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre affirms that “the high rate of urbanization” has resulted in an “increased vulnerability of populations and infrastructure.” Though it may not be wise to decongest urban cities of their inhabitants, government should employ mitigation measures, such as “earthquake and cyclone-resistant buildings, flood and landslide control measures and the incorporation of disaster vulnerability into land-use planning.”

Every natural disaster is an opportunity to know how we can protect ourselves once it occurs. “By understanding how and where these natural events occur and by providing real-time information about floods, earthquakes, and other hazards,” Gorat says, “we can build and live safely on the Earth and respond effectively when disaster strikes.”

The only problem is that, says Arch. Palafox, humans are not quick learners. "Lessons are to be learned, for sure, but these have been taught three decades ago,” he concludes.