A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.
g., flood, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, or landslide). It leads to financial, environmental or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the vulnerability of the affected population to resist the hazard, also called their resilience.[1] This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability.
"[2]Environmental disasters are occurring with alarming regularity. But the management of such disasters has not kept pace at the required level. Major environmental disasters such as the 1952 London smog disaster began happening from the mid-20th century. However, we have yet to develop industrial standards that nip environmental disaster in the bud and prevent major mishaps.
Till date the biggest cause of environmental disasters has been emission of carbon smoke from aircraft and vehicles and oil spills. In order to limit and bring down carbon levels in the atmosphere we must either reduce use of aircraft and vehicles or advance technology to bring down carbon emission to tolerable levels. Apart from the 1991 Gulf war where over 650 oil wells were set afire, the cause of major oil spills have been accidents and collisions involving oil tankers.The recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a frightening commentary on the corporation's incompetent and callous approach to environment concerns.
Hundreds of thousands of marine life and birds lost their lives in the oil spill. The beaches of Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana suffered extensive damages due to the oil spills.The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine in 1986 and the Bhopal gas leak of 1984 also highlight environmental disasters caused due to industrial irresponsibility with severe loss of lives and damages to physical organs for hundreds of thousands of people living in the vicinity of the disaster occurring areas for decades to follow.Such disasters could have been totally avoided or considerably limited had there been appropriate environmental management in place. Even now it is not too late to prevent recurrence of disasters of such damaging magnitude.
It is necessary to have a global management panel that will be responsible for maintaining salubrious environment in every locality. This global panel must be empowered to act even in war torn areas with greater potential for environmental harm.It is the duty of every citizen to demand and obtain a safe and clean environment.It is critically important to have appropriate management for environmental purpose which is continuing to suffer harm due to greedy belligerence and lack of commitment among concerned citizens.The impact of humans' alteration of the ecosystem has led to widespread and/or long-lasting consequences.
It can include the deaths of animals (including humans) and plants, or severe disruption of human life, possibly requiring migration. Environmental disastersEnvironmental disasters can have an effect on agriculture, biodiversity, the economy and human health. The causes include pollution, depletion of natural resources, industrial activity or agriculture. The unforeseen consequences of manmade disasters, and the results of war one constant has remained, that the Earth will be here long after man. Even the consequences of the worst environmental disasters can have and upside, the removal of humans from an area.
If the apparent benefit is not immediately seen, the damage can be corrected through time. With the average lifespan of a US citizen at 78 years, the time will come when humans will be gone and in just a few hundred years after their demise the most prominent scars of our existence would heal and be forgotten. The one thing that the Earth will always have over humankind is time.
