Unit 1 World at Risk
The three YouTube clips below are good illustrations of how quickly a disaster can be created. The 1999 Vargas mudslide killed 20, 000 people when torrential rain and flash floods buried the neighbourhood of Los Corales under three metres of mud. Homes, buildings and infrastructure were destroyed. Poor rains in 2009 and 2010 led to severe drought across large parts of the Horn of Africa in early 2011 with over 13 million people needing humanitarian assistance. Vulnerable people with a limited capacity to cope often become statistics even when we have the technology to plan, predict and prepare for known natural hazards which strike the same geographical location time and time again.
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1.1 Global hazards
What are the major types of hazard facing the world and how big a threat are they? Will climate change increase the risk posed by natural hazards? Has the disaster risk equation worsened as a result of the increased frequency and magnitude of hydro-meterological hazards? Will there be more vulnerable people with limited capacity to cope in the future?
1.2 Global hazard Trends
How and why are natural hazards becoming seen as an increasing global threat? What turns a natural hazard into a disaster?
1.3 Global hazard patterns
What makes some places more hazardous than others? What are the characteristics of a multi-hazard disaster hotspot? Compare the vulnerability and natural hazards in California and the Philippines.
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1.4 Climate change and its causes
Is climate change a natural process? How have the temperature increases and decreases recorded over the last 200, 000 years been measured? How do we know that the enhanced climate change of post-industrial times is due to human activities?
1.5 The impact of global warming
What are the impacts of climate change and why should we be concerned?
1.6 Coping with climate change
What are the strategies for dealing with climate change? How should we tackle the global challenges of increasing risk and
vulnerability in a more hazardous world?
vulnerability in a more hazardous world?
1.7 The challenge of global hazards for the future
How should we tackle the global challenges of increasing risk and vulnerability in a more hazardous world?