Table illustrating at least five (5) ecological disasters and/or controversies

1. Homework 2
Author: Paulo Arieu
Create a table illustrating at least five (5) ecological disasters and/or controversies
occurring from 1975 and 2010.
Make reference to Appendix F (page 46) for further instructions. Be ready to share your work
with the rest of the class.
Disasters can occur as a consequence of the impact of a natural or a human-caused hazard.
Natural hazards comprise phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides,
tsunamis, tropical cyclones and other severe storms, tornadoes and high winds, river and coastal
flooding, wildfires and associated haze, drought, sand and dust storms, and infestations. Human-caused
hazards may be intentional, such as the illegal discharge of oil, or accidental such as toxic
spills or nuclear meltdown. All of these can expose people, ecosystems, flora and fauna to
threats. The poor are the most vulnerable to disasters because they have fewer resources and
capacity to prevent or cope with the impacts.
Recent disasters caused by extreme natural events
The year 2000
a) Mongolian herders had their hardest winter for 30 years — 2.4 million livestock died and 45
per cent of the country’s population was affected.
b) In February and March, floods killed 650 people and left more than half a million homeless in

2. Mozambique. Heavy rains also affected Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
c) Cyclones Eline (mid-February) and Gloria (early-March) left 184 000 people in need of
immediate relief support out of the total of 737 000 affected in Madagascar. In early April, a
third cyclone, Hudah, hit the north of the island.
Floods in September and October in Southeast Asia, especially Viet Nam and Thailand, killed
approximately 900 people and left 4 million homeless or with insufficient shelter. Losses
estimated at US$460 million.
d) Hurricane Keith in October killed eight and affected 62 000 people in Belize. Direct losses
estimated at US$520 million.
e) In mid-October, heavy rains caused floods in the Italian and Swiss Alps killing 38 people and
causing economic losses estimated at US$8.5 billion.
f) Similar floods killed six people and caused US$1.5 billion loss in the United Kingdom in
November.
The year 2001
In mid- to late January, heavy rains over Zambezia Province caused the Licungo River to flood
in Mozambique.
Nearly 500 000 people were affected by the floods.
In March, floods devastated a wide area of northeastern Hungary, northwestern Romania and
western Ukraine. Tens of thousands of people were forced to move.

3. Flash floods unexpectedly struck parts of Pakistan on 23 July. The cities of Islamabad and
Rawalpindi were the worst affected. 132 people were killed.
In mid-November, as many as 576 Vietnamese had been killed by natural disasters, mainly
floods and typhoons.
Material losses amounted to more than US$200 million.
A persistent multi-year drought in Central and Southwest Asia had affected about 60 million
people by November 2001.
After several months of drought, devastating floods tore through the Algerian capital Algiers on
10 November, killing 751 people.
Thousands were injured, and about 40 000 people were left homeless.
Source: ReliefWeb (2002), Munich Re 2001

4. Apartment block split in two by the 1999 earthquake in Izmit, Turkey Source: Alexander
Allmann, Munich Re.
Lothar, the first of two severe storms that passed over Western Europe on 26–27 December
1999, caused severe damage. This image shows the storm passing over Europe at 12.00 UTC on
26 December, with the northern African coast outlined below.
Source: copyright EUMETSAT 2002

5. Helicopter sprays water on one of the forest fires that periodically plague southern European
countries such as Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain; fires are also common in
the Siberian region of the Russian Federation. Source: UNEP, Rougier, Topham Picturepoint.
Some of the worst disasters in Africa, 1972–2000
Number Killed Number Affected
1972 famine Ethiopia 600 000 no data
1973 drought Ethiopia 100 000 no data
1974 drought Ethiopia 200 000 no data
1980 drought Mozambique no data 6 000 000

6. 1982 famine Ghana no data 12 500 000
1983 drought Ethiopia no data 7 000.000
1984 drought Ethiopia 300 000 7 750 000
1984 drought Sudan 150 000 8 400 000
1985 drought Mozambique 100 000 2 466 000
1987 drought Ethiopia no data 7 000 000
1990 drought Ethiopia no data 6 500 000
1991 drought Ethiopia no data 6 160 000
1991 drought Sudan no data 8 600 000
1993 drought Malawi no data 7 000 000
1993 famine Ethiopia no data 6 700 000
1999 famine Ethiopia no data 7 767 594
2000 drought Ethiopia no data 10.500 000
Source: CRED-OFDA 2002
Bibliografía consultada

7. GEO: Global Environment Outlook 3. http://www.grida.no/geo/geo3/english/pdfs/chapter2-
9_disasters.pdf
Answer the following questions – in writing to be turned in to the facilitator:
a. What are the top three (3) challenges or threats of our environment today?
1. Disforestation
2. Climate change
3. Environmental pollution.
b. Name at least three (3) eco-friendly alternatives to those challenges or threats.
1. Planting trees
2. Implement policies of greenhouse gases
3. Recycling of waste
c. Is everyone following such alternate way of living? Why or why not?
Everyone cares for the environment?
No, not all countries caring for the environment or have laws in favour of the
environment. Environment means everything which affects to be alive and conditions especially
the circumstances of life of individuals or the society on his life. It comprises a set of natural,
social and cultural values existing in one place and one time, that influence the life of the human
being and the generations to come. I.e., it is not only the space where life develops but also

8. encompasses living beings, objects, water, soil, air and the relations between them as well as
intangibles like culture.
Leo Boff says that the Capitalism has now realized his dream, possibly the last of its
already long history. It has peaked. And after the roof? Nobody knows. But we can imagine the
answer come from other models of production and consumption, but own “Mother Earth” (Gaia),
which, finite, more does not support an infinite sleep. She is giving clear signs pre-emptive, in
the words of the prize Nobel of medicine Christian de Duve are similar to those that preceded the
great destruction that occurred in the long history of the land. We have to be vigilant because
extreme events which we are experiencing are running any social disasters, even in our
generation. The worst thing is that neither politicians nor much of the scientific community or
the population are realizing that dangerous reality. It is distorted or hidden, as it is too anti-systemic.
It would force us to change, something that few want to. Well said Donato Antonio
Nobre (2014) released study on the future climate of the Amazon: "Agriculture conscious, if he
knew what the scientific community knows (the big droughts that will come), would be in the
streets with posters demanding the Government protection of the forests and planting trees on
your property». We need one higher dream that galvanize people to save life on the planet and
secure the future of the human species. Die ideologies. They age philosophies. But the big
dreams remain. They guide us through new visions and stimulate us to develop new social
relationships with nature and mother earth.
Leo Boff says that “our current society, is a type of society that has opted to transform
everything into merchandise: the Earth, nature, water and life itself, and that puts winning money
and consume as supreme ideal above any other value, over human rights, democracy and the
respect to the environment”. So, he thinks that “this type of civilization do not deserve to have no

9. future” and “simply represents an insult to everything that humanity preached and tried to live
through all the centuries”. But Boff understands that “if for ten fair, according to the Bible, God
had forgiven to Sodom and Gomorrah, we also hope to be saved by the many fair that still bloom
on the face of the Earth”. The love of God in Jesucrist is our big dream and our really and unique
hope. And we have the hope that capitalist people can have a new reflection about ecology.
Bibliography
 http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/boff/articulo.php?num=675
 http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/boff/articulo.php?num=328