Natural Vs. 'Unnatural Disasters'

Our next lesson on Tectonics focused on the idea of 'unnatural' disasters.  This concept explains the fact that:


  • Natural hazards are phenomena that occur on the earth that have the capacity to cause destruction - ex. earthquakes and volcanoes
  • They become natural disasters when they cause the loss of human life, or extreme property damage
  • However, the degree of damage and loss of human life is often connected to human facts and decision making, and the extent of the disaster can often be mitigated

We examined two different case studies - Tsunami in Japan (2011), and Tsunami in South East Asia (2004). We examined how similar natural hazards caused much different extents of disaster because of different variables such as the level of infrastructure, local education, etc. 

We then did a role play determining which factors would be most important to invest in, if we were in  charge of governments in developing countries. 

Here is the powerpoint, and handouts. 

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