Study Reveals Dramatic Rise in Natural Disasters

Thursday, November 29, A.D 2007

A recently released report by the British-based ngo (non-governmental organization), Oxfam, confirms what many in the disaster response community have suspected for some time – the number of natural disasters occurring in the world is dramatically on the rise. Indeed, the Oxfam study found that the number has more than quadrupled over the past two decades. In the early 1980s the world experienced about 120 disasters per year compared to current figures of around 500 per year. The number of people affected has swelled by almost 70% - from 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994 to some 254 million a year between 1995 to 2004. And as one might regrettably surmise, it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people who are being most severely impacted.

Here at Week of Compassion 10 to 15 years ago, Disciples through WOC typically responded to disasters and emergencies on average of about once every 5-7 days. Now we are responding annually about once every 1-2 days. Since the beginning of the second half of 2007 (July 1 to today), WOC has made 123 responses from the Compassion Response Fund and various designated disaster accounts – the vast majority of those weather-related events, i.e., summer floods in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Ohio; floods in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and China; floods in Sudan, Uganda and other sub-Saharan countries; and floods in Mexico, Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras and Colombia. While the hurricane season in the U.S. has been relatively benign, tropical storms, hurricanes and cyclones have caused major damage in the Caribbean, Central America and most recently in Bangladesh. Right now, WOC Associate Director, Amy Gopp, is visiting partners in Haiti and the Dominican Republic that are responding to the devastating impact of Tropical Storm Noel.

A logical question that follows might be: what can we Disciples do? Of course, there are some simple things – give to WOC (gifts earmarked for the Compassion Response Fund are used 100% for disaster response); prepare CWS “Gift of the Heart” kits (stocks for many of the kits are essentially depleted as requests from partners throughout the world continue to grow each year); make sure your congregation has and maintains a WOC interactive map/poster (a great way to track disasters as they happen and how we Disciples respond). Stay informed - many disasters remain under-reported, even unreported, by so much of the popular media. Also, consider how your lifestyle, as well as policies and practices by our government and the larger society, might contribute to the increase – as the Oxfam report reveals that much of the increase can be attributed to climate change and global warming.

WOC Map/Poster

Click here for the latest additions to the WOC interactive map/poster. For a complimentary copy of the map/poster for your congregation, call the office at 317.713.2442 or send an e-mail to ecleveland@woc.disciples.org.