>From portland.cbn.net.id!usisjkt Mon Jun 28 03:52:16 1999 remote from geni
Received: by geni.nusa.or.id (1.65/waf)
via UUCP; Tue, 29 Jun 99 23:13:25 +7
for djoni
Received: by nusanet.nusa.or.id with UUCP id AA11827 (for [EMAIL PROTECTED]); Mon,
28 Jun 1999 11:33:37 +0700
Received: from willamette.cbn.net.id (willamette.cbn.net.id [202.158.3.6])
by cdp.igc.apc.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id UAA17785;
Sun, 27 Jun 1999 20:52:16 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 20:52:16 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Received: (qmail 18512 invoked from network); 28 Jun 1999 03:48:57 -0000
Received: from portland.cbn.net.id (HELO cbn.net.id) (202.158.3.4)
by willamette.cbn.net.id with SMTP; 28 Jun 1999 03:48:57 -0000
Received: (qmail 16293 invoked from network); 28 Jun 1999 04:01:55 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO WEBSERVER) (202.158.30.162)
by portland.cbn.net.id with SMTP; 28 Jun 1999 04:01:55 -0000
From: USIS Indonesia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Djoni Ferdiwijaya <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
X-Url: http://www.usembassyjakarta.org
X-Mailer: NetMailer v1.00 (http://www.alphasoftware.com/netmailer)
[C.R-D3E36037AEF4DCCB8888E82D9]
Subject: New Report Warns of A Coming Decade of Super-Disasters
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
NEW REPORT WARNS OF A COMING DECADE OF SUPER-DISASTERS
(Last year's natural disasters worst on record) (480)
By Wendy Lubetkin
USIA European Correspondent
Geneva -- A new report warns that climate change, deforestation and overpopulation
will make the next 10 years a "decade of super-disasters."
The World Disasters Report 1999 is published by the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world's largest emergency response network. The
federation is comprised of the 175 national Red Cross and Red Crescent member
societies around the world.
"Everyone is aware of the environmental problems of global warming and deforestation
on the one hand, and the social problems of increasing poverty and growing shanty
towns on the other. But when these two factors collide, you have a new scale of
catastrophe," said Dr. Astrid Heiberg, president of the federation.
The federation said the number of people needing its assistance has increased by more
than 10-fold over the past six years.
Last year's season of natural disasters was the worst on record. In 1998, natural
disasters created more "refugees" than wars and conflict, the federation said.
Hurricane Mitch, which dumped a year's rainfall on Central America in a few hours,
left 10,000 people dead and 2.5 million temporarily dependent on aid.
"The explosive combination of human-driven climate change and rapidly changing
socio-economic conditions will set off chain reactions of devastation leading to
super-disasters," the report said. "The world is at risk as never before."
Climate change "will be manifested in a catalogue of disasters such as storms,
droughts and flooding unparalleled in modern times," the report added. "The main
uncertainly is where and when they will occur."
El Nino and La Nina -- dubbed the "deadly duo" by the report's authors -- brought
worldwide epidemics, droughts, forest fires and floods, which claimed 21,000 lives.
The loss of natural vegetation, particularly forests, has become a major cause of
preventable natural disasters around the world, the report noted.
Deforestation in China's Yangtze basin contributed to the flooding that affected the
lives of 180 million people, and the deforestation of the foothills in the northwest
Himalayas caused landslides last August that killed more than 300 people in a week.
The havoc caused by Hurricane Mitch also underlines the vulnerability of an
"ecologically naked" landscape to extreme weather, the report said. In Honduras and
Nicaragua, Mitch hit denuded hillsides setting off huge landslides and mudflows that
left nearly 10,000 people dead and 2.5 million temporarily dependent on aid.
The report also said that even as the number of natural disasters increases, access to
insurance worldwide coverage is dropping.
Insurance companies fear the destructive effects of climate change could bankrupt the
industry. In 1992, the damage inflicted by Hurricane Andrew drained one-tenth of the
industry's global reserves in one night. Many insurance companies now refuse to
cover the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean.
-------
United States Information Service
Jalan Medan Merdeka Selatan 4 Jakarta 10110
Telephone: (021)344-2211, Ext. 2566 Fax: (021)381-0243
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
USIS Homepage: http://www.usembassyjakarta.org
___________________________________________________________________
Mulai langganan: "subscribe envorum" ke [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Stop langganan: "unsubscribe envorum" ke [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Arsip di http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
atau di http://www.egroups.com/list/envorum
