Difference between revisions of "Catastrophes - Acts of God"
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==Description:== | ==Description:== | ||
It is evident that man-made catastrophes or natural "Acts of Gods" have always been instrumental in charting the roadmap of life on earth. | It is evident that man-made catastrophes or natural "Acts of Gods" have always been instrumental in charting the roadmap of life on earth. Negotiations too are affected by catastrophes. Acts of God could either motivate mutual cooperation in negotiations and sometimes even strain the relationships between members.<br><br> | ||
Big natural catastrophes are events of such a big impact to the affected region that it drives its political, scientific and economic leaders to rethink its role in the global fight against global warming. In this context we are obviously focusing on disasters that are/can be caused by global warming, thus excluding earthquakes caused by seismic activities. | |||
An example are the hurricane Katrina, the fires in Russia, the flood in Pakistan, the flood in Taiwan, China and Germany etc. | |||
<br><br> | |||
All the aforesaid catastrophes not only effect the power balance in the world but they also alter the individual commitment and concern for concluding them. Thus would certainly affect the climate change negotiation.<br><br> | |||
==Enablers:== | ==Enablers:== | ||
-Major natural disaster in China and/or US and/or India causing severe damage <br> | |||
-A new technology to reduce carbon emissions available at low cost<br> | |||
-New and cheap means of harnessing renewable sources of energy<br> | |||
-Depletion of oil<br> | |||
-Major increase in sea level<br> | |||
-GHG increase<br> | |||
-global temperature increase<br> | |||
-[[Urbanisation]]<br> | |||
-rising sea level<br> | |||
==Inhibitors:== | ==Inhibitors:== | ||
- Discovery of a huge oil field (say the size of Saudi fields) <br> | |||
- Another financial crisis<br> | |||
- Another major/world war<br> | |||
- An act of terrorism<br> | |||
- A global pandemic<br> | |||
- Nuclear disaster <br> | |||
==Paradigms:== | ==Paradigms:== | ||
U.S. is starting to become more active in the UN climate conferences.<br> | |||
After Russias big fires, the politics of this country is beginning to open its diplomatic talks with other countries also in regards to climatic issues. <br><br> | |||
There is a growing understanding within the civilization that global warming is the main cause for the observed increasing number and size of natural catastrophes. Many scientists and scientific organizations are proclaiming that a reduction of GHG is the most important driver of reducing the trend of global warming to lower than 2 Celsius and thus for a sustainable development of our globe (most important organization here: IPCC).<br><br> | |||
The increasing number of bigger catastrophes in China will awake its politicians to talk on a global level about climatic change. <br> | |||
Europe for instance has a leading green technology providing industry that has been driven by the regions believe and legislation in reducing GHG. | |||
==Experts:== | ==Experts:== | ||
-IPCC <br> | |||
-UNFCCC<br> | |||
-IEA<br> | |||
==Timing:== | ==Timing:== | ||
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="font-size:100%;" | |||
|- | |||
! style="width:10%;"| Rank | |||
! style="width:25%;"| Event | |||
! style="width:20%;"| Location | |||
! style="width:20%;"| Date | |||
! style="width:25%;"| Death toll (estimate) | |||
|- | |||
| 1.||[[1931 China floods]]||[[China]]||<span style="display:none">01931-01-01</span>July, November, 1931|| {{nts|1,000,000}}2,500,000*<ref name="cbc.ca">[http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/08/f-natural-disasters-history.html The world's worst natural disasters Calamities of the 20th and 21st centuries] ''CBC News'.' Retrieved 2010-2-10.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2.||[[1887 Yellow River flood]]||China||<span style="display:none">01887-01-01</span>September, October, 1887||{{nts|900,000}}2,000,000<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/flood/deluge.html |title=NOVA Online | Flood! | Dealing with the Deluge |publisher=Pbs.org |date= |accessdate=2010-08-11}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 3.||[[1556 Shaanxi earthquake]]||[[Shaanxi Province]], China||<span style="display:none">01556-01-01</span>January 23, 1556||{{nts|830,000}}<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1953425_1953424,00.html | work=Time | title=Top 10 Deadliest Earthquakes | date=January 13, 2010 | accessdate=May 8, 2010}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 4.||[[1970 Bhola cyclone]]||[[East Pakistan]] (now [[Bangladesh]])||<span style="display:none">01970-01-01</span>November 13, 1970||{{nts|500,000}}<ref name="cbc.ca"/> | |||
|- | |||
| 5. ||[[Pre-1980 North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons#1839 Indian Cyclone|1839 India Cyclone]]||[[India]]||<span style="display:none">01839-01-01</span>November 25, 1839 ||{{nts|300,000}}{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} | |||
|- | |||
| 6. ||[[526 Antioch earthquake]]||[[Antioch]], [[Turkey]]||{{dts|526|5}}||{{nts|250,000300,000}} | |||
|- | |||
| 7.||[[1976 Tangshan earthquake]]||[[Tangshan]], [[Hebei]], China||<span style="display:none">01976-07-28</span>July 28, 1976||{{nts|242,419}}<ref name="cbc.ca"/> | |||
|- | |||
| 8.||[[1920 Haiyuan earthquake]]||[[Haiyuan County|Haiyuan]], [[Ningxia]]-[[Gansu]], China||<span style="display:none">01920-12-16</span>December 16, 1920||{{nts|234,117}}<ref name="cbc.ca"/> | |||
|- | |||
| 9.||[[2004 Indian ocean earthquake|2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami]]||[[Sumatra]], [[Indonesia]] ||<span style="display:none">02004-12-26</span>December 26, 2004 ||{{nts|230,210}} | |||
|- | |||
| 10. ||[[2010 Haiti earthquake]]||[[Port-au-Prince]], [[Haiti]] ||<span style="display:none">02010-01-12</span>January 12, 2010||{{nts|222,000}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/us2010rja6/#summary |title=Magnitude 7.0 - HAITI REGION |publisher=Earthquake.usgs.gov |date= |accessdate=2010-08-11}}</ref> | |||
|} | |||
==Web Resources:== | ==Web Resources:== | ||
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/21/dutch-troops-to-pull-out_n_470708.html<br> | |||
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_attack_on_Iraq <br> | |||
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Enduring_Freedom <br> | |||
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present) <br> | |||
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11 <br> | |||
http://across.co.nz/WorldsWorstDisasters.html <br> | |||
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VFV-3XR2V33-6&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F31%2F1999&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1434235932&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=caa5fa5558aea88a05f7c941f4a1d8d9<br> | |||
http://unfccc.int/2860.php<br> | |||
http://www.ipcc.ch/organization/organization.htm<br> | |||
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters<br> | |||