Natural disasters cause more damage than wars, study finds.
The Norwegian Refugee Council found that in 2013, natural disasters drove more people from their homes than war did.
Disasters like typhoons, hurricanes and floods displaced approximately 22 million people, which is three times as many as war. Despite the fact that 2013 was a year full of conflict, 'mega disasters' did way more damage than war, The Guardian reported.
The Secretary of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland told the Guardian, "Basically, the combination of mega natural disasters and hundreds of smaller natural disasters massively displaces people in many more countries than the countries that have war and conflict.
According to the data comparison between the 1970s and today, the number of people who lose their homes due to natural disasters has doubled.
Every year, 22 million people lose their homes to natural calamities on average, but some years the numbers were way higher than that. For example, in 2010, the number was 42 million.
Damages caused by small-scale disasters are usually underestimated and the global numbers might be even higher, the Guardian said.
People living in developing countries are at higher risk, because total recovery after a disaster might not be possible before a new one hits them.
The study also says that rapid urbanization is adding up to the problem and claiming more causalities. "These vast urban areas become traps when a natural disaster hits. People are crammed together and there is no escape. They live in river deltas, they live on hurricane beaches, they live along river beds that are easily flooded, they live where there are mudslides, and so on," Egeland said.
The introduction of new technologies like early warning systems might help to save more lives when a natural disaster hits, but that is not enough to save peoples' homes and what they own.
As the effects of global climate change hit the world more and more every day, scientists expect an increase in such extreme weather conditions and catastrophes. More people are expected to be affected by natural disasters in the future, said the Guardian.
