Contents

- Unnatural Disaster: The Lessons of Katrina

- Weather Related Disasters Have Growing Economic, Human Toll

- Hurricane Katrina: Just a "Natural" Disaster?

Unnatural Disaster: The Lessons of Katrina

Worldwatch Projects Catastrophe Will Be Most Costly Weather-Related Disaster in History

The overwhelming human and financial impacts of Hurricane Katrina are powerful evidence that political and economic decisions made in the United States and other countries have failed to account for our dependence on a healthy resource base, according to an assessment released today by the Worldwatch Institute.

Alteration of the Mississippi River and the destruction of wetlands at its mouth have left the area around New Orleans abnormally vulnerable to the forces of nature. According to many scientists, the early results of global warming—90 degree Fahrenheit water temperatures in the Gulf and rising sea levels—may have exacerbated the destructive power of Katrina.

"The catastrophe now unfolding along the U.S. Gulf Coast is a wake-up call for decision makers around the globe," says Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin. "If the world continues on its current course—massively altering the natural world and further increasing fossil fuel consumption—future generations may face a chain of disasters that make Katrina-scale catastrophes a common feature of life in the 21st century."

Read the full statement online.

Vital Signs Fact of the Week

Weather Related Disasters Have Growing Economic, Human Toll

In 2004, weather-related disasters caused nearly $105 billion in economic losses (in 2003 dollars)—almost twice the total in 2003. Roughly 12,000 weather-related disasters since 1980 have caused just over 618,200 fatalities and cost a total of 1.3 trillion. Average annual economic losses from such events have risen from $26 billion in the 1980s to $67 billion over the last decade. Average annual fatalities due to weather, meanwhile, jumped from 22,000 in the 1980s to 33,000 in the 1990s.

• Read the full summary and download the PDF of this Vital Sign.
• Purchase Vital Signs 2005 in print or PDF versions.

Hurricane Katrina: Just a "Natural" Disaster?

U.S. President George W. Bush stated yesterday, "We're dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history." However, in a Salon.com/Spiegel Online editorial on August 31, former U.S. administration official Sidney Blumenthal says the Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Sandra Postel, Director of the Global Water Policy Project and Worldwatch Institute Senior Fellow, notes in Liquid Assets: Safeguarding Freshwater Ecosystems that distinguishing between a natural and human-induced disaster is becoming more difficult. The "clearing of trees, filling of wetlands, engineering of rivers, and destruction of mangroves has frayed the natural safety nets that healthy ecosystems provide. Consequently, when a natural disaster strikes, the risks of catastrophic losses are higher."

• Purchase print or PDF versions: Liquid Assets: Safeguarding Freshwater Ecosystems
• Liquid Assets press release: http://www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2005/07/11/

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