World`s Most Dangersous Natural Disasters and Long-Term Environmental Problems : A Global Overview

Current Sea Level Rise: Low coastal zones (with a coast equal to or lower than 10 meters) account for only two percent of the earth's mass, but up to ten percent of the world's population and thirteen percent of its urban population. The 2007 report, Environment and Urbanizations, says that 634 million people live in coastal areas within 30 feet (9 m) of sea level. A rise in sea levels is not limited to small island states (atoll states). Rather, about 60 percent of the world's biggest cities with more than five million people are located in low-lying coastal areas. (Eleven of the world's fifteen largest cities are on coastal plains). Indeed, over 70 percent of the world's population lives on coastal plains.

In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected a global rise of 9cm to 88cm (3.5 to 34.6 inches) in sea levels between 1990 and 2100. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that global warning would lead, by 2100, to a rise in the ocean level of 180 to 590 mm. According to a significant number of researchers, ocean levels will rise from at least 1.5 to 2 meters over the next 100 years. The areas most vulnerable to the effects of increasing sea levels seem to be from the highly populated coasts of China as well as the southern coasts of the Mediterranean, the west coast of Africa (Nigeria), South Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India), and many small island states (Maldives, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Palau, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Nauru). Residents of China appear to be particularly at risk from the long-term effects of sea level rise. China has particularly high rates of urbanisation along its coastline. It is estimated that a one-metre rise could force the displacement of more than 12.4 million residents of Shanghai. Over half of Bangladesh's population lives in lower coastal plains. According to Brown (2004), a one-meter rise would force the evacuation of over 40 million people. A sea-level rise of about 40 centimetres could sink 11 percent of the Bangladeshi coastline and force more than 10 million people to migrate from their homelands. In 1995, half of Bhola Island in Bangladesh (also called Dakhin Shahbazpur) became permanently flooded, leaving over 500,000 people homeless. The Bhola Islanders are often described as some of the world's first refugees caused by a sea-level rise. It is estimated that even a rise of just 20 centimetres could create over 750,000 environmentally induced displaced people in Nigeria. This problem may also touch other African countries like Niger, Senegal, the Gambia, or Egypt. Rising ocean levels will eventually pose a problem for the western hemisphere as well (the United States, Argentina, Chile) and even European countries (Great Britain).

Deforestation. Wasteful deforestation can lead to an irreversible imbalance in the natural environment (as in the Amazon Jungle), or the growing scale of the desertification of soils. Increasing the scale of deforestation in many countries (for example in China) have enormous environmental consequences, forcing many people to migrate. According to United Nations analysis Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate, Brazil loses the largest area of forest annually, and Congo consumes more bushmeat than any other tropical country. Amazon deforestation currently is considered as one of the greatest environmental problems in last years. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped nearly 46 percent from August 2008 to July 2009. Desertification continues to be a major problem facing China's environment, despite efforts to expand forest cover and plant trees.

Desertification, Soil Salinity. Desertification is considered as one of the world's most alarming global environmental problems. It is also the primary cause of environmentallly induced displacement in many regions of the world. The term “desertification” has been in use since 1949 when French ecologist and botanists Andre Aubreville published a book entitled Climate, Forets et Desertification de l'Afrique Tropicale. He defined desertification as the changing of productive land into a desert as the result of ruination of land by man-induced soil erosion. According to many estimates, desertification affects at least 135-250 million people worldwide. However, some scientists argue that only in China does the problem of desertification concerns more than 400 million people. Primary areas of the world that are affected by desertification is Sahel region, as well as Southern Africa (the Kalahari Desert), China (the Gobi Desert) and Latin America. According to Allen and Ober (2008) over 67 million people in the Sahel already exist under the effects of desertification. Desertification of soils appears to be one of the fundamental causes of hunger in many regions of the world. Soil degradation is actually very dangerous phenomenon in land degradation and has severe effects on soil functions. To the most important causes of soil degradation we can include deforestation, overgrazing and various agricultural activities. According to Salfrank and Walicki (2005) over a half of total Central Asian land area is prone to desertification and over 80 percent of total land area in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan is affected by salinization and desertification.

Droughts. The problem of drought in many regions of the world seems to be particularly associated with the process of desertification. We can define drought as an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. The so called Sahelian-drought, that began in 1986 took place in sub-Saharan Africa was responsible for deaths of between 100,000 and 250,000 of the region's inhabitants. The dry period in Sahelian Region was accentuated by two severe droughts in the early 1970s and 1980s. It is estimated that Sahel drought killed some 100,000 people and displaced millions in that time. A direct consequence of the drought-induced famine was also a large scale of internal displacement and at least 0.5 million refugees in the region. A 2011 drought in East Africa was described as “the worst in 60 years”.

Earthquakes. Earthquakes are another type of natural disaster that brings about specific consequences in countries with a high population density rate. Given the currently observed phenomenon seems reasonable to distinguish two categories of natural disasters caused by earthquakes: 1. displacement as a result of direct action of earthquake (for example the consequences of the 2003 Bam earthquake in Iran) and 2. displacement caused by earthquake induced tsunami wave (mainly characteristic for coastal areas). Environmentally-induced displacement associated with the increasingly frequent after 2004 tsunami will be discussed in another part of the present study.

Particularly at risk the consequences of grand earthquakes seems now highly populated Asian countries (China, India and Japan). Another area of frequent occurrence of earthquakes is also South America (especially the areas of Chile and Peru) and a pool of the Caribbean Sea. The largest earthquakes in recent years have been (not including earthquake induced tsunami waves): earthquake in Haiti in 2010 (over 227,000 people killed), Sichuan Province in China in 2008 (over 87,000 dead), earthquake in Bam (Iran) in 2003 (31,000 killed), Gujarat in India in 2001 (21,000 killed).

Earthquake generated tsunamis. Caused by the tsunami wave huge disasters show us numerous threats of coastal states. Tsunami wave is generated by underwater earthquakes. However, tsunami takes the radically different nature than the ordinary earthquake. Thus it seems reasonable to distinguish the tsunamis as a separated category of natural disasters. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunami affected many countries in Southeast Asia and beyond, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Maldives, Somalia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Seychelles and others.

Floods. In considering the issue of forced resettlement we very often forget about the consequences of flooding. This fact, however, seem illegitimate, especially since in many countries around the world are the dominant determinant of disaster induced displacement. Effect of flooding on the dynamics of environentally-induced displacement are especially evident in countries without becoming victims of internal armed conflict or other spectacular natural disasters (such as tsunamis, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions). The consequences of flooding for the operation of the unit may take diverse in nature. Very often they are associated with short-term evacuation of population from the territory under threat. After the cessation of flooding, people can return to their homes. Many floods cause irreversible damage, however, forcing many thousands (or even million) of people to permanent change their place of current residence. Most floods seem to be out of the big river basins in Asia Yangtze, Yellow River and Mekong. Among the countries in the region most touched by the great floods we should mentioned: China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam as well as Central and Southern American States.

We can observe the biggest impact of flooding in areas with a higher rate of urbanisation. The 2007 South Asian floods in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh displaced approximately 20-30 million people. More than a million people in southern China were forced to flee their homes by major flooding in June 2008. Floods in Pakistan (July 2010) killed over 1700 people and affected more than 20 million. Another big flood in Colombia (December 2010) forced over 2.2 million people nation-wide out of their homes. Floods and the displacement they cause can also result from the construction of dams. (This occurred, for instance, in China in 1971 and Nigeria in 2010.). Short-term nature of some natural disasters is an argument for the separation of disaster-induced displacement from the more general context of environentally-induced displacement. Reports of Norwegian Refugee Council and International Displacement Monitoring Centre (2010, 2011) draw attention to the potential of mass displacement caused by floods in many Asian, African and South American Countries. But let us note that the flood induced displacement is often short-lived (evacuation).

Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Cyclones. Hurricanes are another important factor affecting the dynamics of disaster-induced displacement. The United States and many Central American countries are particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. In the U.S., Florida is particularly prone to hurricanes because warm seas surround the state. Hurricane Mitch in 1998 was one of the most powerful hurricanes in the twentieth century. Over two million people in Nicaragua were directly affected by the hurricane (368,000 were displaced from their homes). Floods in Guatemala caused by Mitch destroyed 30,000 houses, displacing over 730,000 people. Hurricane Katrina in August 2008 was one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, as well as one of the costliest natural disasters. Seven states were affected by Hurricane Katrina including Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Ohio (affected due to floods on the Mississippi River). Over 200,000 homes in New Orleans were destroyed, and more than 800,000 citizens were displaced (the largest displacement in the United States since the Dust Bowl between 1930 and 1936). In Haiti, in 2008, over 6,000 people had to relocate thanks to the devastation of Hurricane Gustav. Tornadoes, especially common in the United States, are a growing cause of population displacement. More than 250 people were killed and over 70,000 displaced during tornadoes in the Mid-Eastern U.S. in April 2011.

Land Degradation, Inappropriate Agricultral Practices. Human-induced soil degradation is now one of the leading causes of environmentally displacement. Environmental consequences of poor farming are currently visible in the vast majority of developing countries. The most famous example of the demographic consequences of bad agricultural practices was the Dust Bowl. Environmentally induced displacement is a consequence of so-called `Slash-and-burn agricultural technique`, a primitive form of economy practiced in many parts of the world to this day. The major causes of land degradation include: land clearance, agricultural depletion, overdrifting, urban sprawl and land pollution.

Volcanic Eruptions. Volcanic Eruptions are another cause of disaster-induced displacement. Every year they force tens of thousands of people to evacuate, mostly in vulnerable areas of the world, such as the Indonesian Island Sumatra, Ecuador, many African countries. The Erta Ale volcanic eruption in Ethiopia (September 2005) forced 6,500 nearby residents to flee. The Tungurahua eruption in Ecuador (August 2006) also displaced more than 6,500 people. In December 2005, Mount Karthala erupted in Comoros, displacing over a third of the country's population. According to a United Nations OCHA Agency report, approximately 175,000 people were said to have “inadequate access to clean drinking water due to the contamination of watertanks”. The volcano Pacaya eruption in May, 2010, with over 100,000 Guatemalans estimated to be displaced. The next big eruption was in August 2010: Mount Sinabung in Sumatra forced over 30,000 people to evacuate. At least 25,000 people were seriously affected by the eruption of Bromo (Java, Indonesia) in December 2010.

Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."

Articles by Bogumil Terminski