TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

1.0 RECORDED NATURAL DISASTERS IN THE LAST 2

TWENTY (20) YEARS (1994-2014)

2.0 RECORDED WAR CASUALTIES IN PAST YEARS 5

3.0 THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF MAN IS HIS 6

INABILITY TO BE AT PEACE WITH HIMSELF

4.0 UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA, IT’S 7

INABILITY TO PARTAKE IN GLOBAL ISSUES

5.0 PICTURES SHOWING RESULTS OF NATURAL 8

DISASTERS AND WAR

6.0 REFERENCES 13

1

1.0 RECORDED NATURAL DISASTERS IN THE LAST TWENTY (20) YEARS (1994-2014)

The aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan has been devastating. Meanwhile, the government is struggling to contain a nuclear crisis, which adds to the country's disaster.

While analysts are estimating that the Japan disaster is likely to be the costliest on record, AccuWeather.com has calculated the world's five most expensive natural disasters in history.

1. Northridge earthquake, California, U.S. (1994)

Cost: $42 billion (by NOAA)

While there have been more powerful earthquakes than the magnitude 6.7 Northridge quake, it caused large-scale damage throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley due to the location of its epicenter.

The Northridge earthquake occurred on Jan. 17, 1994, in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, Calif., and lasted for about 10-20 seconds. The quake resulted in more than 60 deaths and more than 5,000 injuries. More than 25,000 people were left homeless, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $25 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in the U.S. history.

2. Kobe earthquake, Japan (1995)

Cost: $100 billion (by the World Bank)

The Great Hanshin earthquake, or Kobe earthquake, occurred on Jan. 17, 1995, in the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The focus of the quake was located 16 km (10 miles) beneath its epicenter, 20 km (12 miles) away from the city of Kobe. Measured at 6.8 magnitude, the earthquake killed nearly 6,500 people, making it the deadliest disaster in the world that year.

The Kobe quake caused about $100 billion in destruction, according to an calculation by the World Bank, but Japanese trade rebounded within a year, with imports recovering fully and exports back to 85 percent of normal levels.

2

3. Hurricane Katrina, U.S. (2005)

Cost: $81 billion total damage cost (by NOAA)

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the worst disasters in the U.S. history. It made landfall along the Gulf Coast on Aug. 25, 2005. At least 1,836 people died in the hurricane and in the subsequent floods. Five years later, thousands of displaced residents in Mississippi and Louisiana were still living in temporary accommodations.

The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $81 billion (2005 U.S. dollars). It also generated the largest single loss in the history of insurance - $41 billion, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

4. Sichuan earthquake, China (2008)

Cost: $29 billion (by the World Bank)

The May 12, 2008, Sichuan earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 magnitude. The quake killed about 70,000 people and left more than 18,000 missing. The epicenter was 80 km (50 miles) west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, where almost 4 million people resided.

Estimates put direct damage and losses from the earthquake at $29 billion, with indirect damage much higher.

Note: The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which caused about 250,000 deaths, is not included on this list. Economic losses there amounted to only $14 billion in today's prices, partly because of low property and land values in the affected areas.

However, money is only one scale of evaluating the impacts of natural disasters.

"It (money) does not apply to the measures of human lives lost," AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Jim Andrews says. "A total of about 250,000 deaths in the Indian Ocean Tsunami can never be compared by economic loss."

5. Earthquake and tsunami, Japan (2011)

Cost: $235 billion (by the World Bank)

So far, 8,649 people have been confirmed dead and another 13,262 are missing since the 9.0-magnitude quake struck off the coast near Sendai, Japan, on March 11, 2011. The degree of

3

damage caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami was enormous. Videos show that almost no parts of any structures were left standing in the worst affected areas.

Failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant intensified the situation,

resulting in evacuation of about 200,000 people residing around the plant.

The World Bank on March 21 said that damage might reach $235 billion, while Japan's government had a higher estimate of $309 billion. The damage estimate could go even higher as it does not include losses in economic activity from planned power outages or the broader impact of the nuclear crisis, making the disaster world's most expensive on record.

4

Rank Death toll (estimate)

Event Location Date

1 154 North American blizzard of 1996

United States 1996

2 926 2008 Afghanistan blizzard

Afghanistan 2008

3 133 2008 Chinese winter storms

China 2008

4 160,000 2010 Haiti earthquake

Haiti January 12, 2010

5 100,000 2005 Kashmir earthquake

Pakistan (Azad Kashmir)

October 8, 2005

6 87,588 2008 Sichuan earthquake

China May 12, 2008

7

70,0002003 European heat wave Europe 2003

2.0 RECORDED WAR CASUALTIES IN PAST YEARS

Wars, armed conflicts, and genocides

Main articles: List of wars by death toll and List of genocides by death toll

These figures of one million or more deaths include the deaths of civilians from diseases, famine, etc., as well as deaths of soldiers in battle and massacres and genocide. Where only one estimate is available, it appears in both the low and high estimates. This is a sortable table. Click on the column sort buttons to sort results numerically or alphabetically.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) defines genocide in part as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". Determining what historical events constitute a enocide and which is a merely criminal or inhuman behavior is not a clear-cut matter. In nearly every case where accusations of genocide have circulated, partisans of various sides have disputed the interpretation and details of the event, often to the point of promoting different versions of the facts. An accusation of genocide will almost always be controversial. Determining the number of persons killed in each genocide can be just as difficult, with political, religious and ethnic biases or prejudices often leading to downplayed or exaggerated figures. Some of the accounts below may include ancillary causes of death such as malnutrition and disease, which may or may not have been intentionally inflicted.

Lowestestimate

Highestestimate Event Location From To

Duration (years) Notes, See also

2,500,000[27] 5,400,000[28] Second Congo War

Democratic Republic of the Congo

1998 2003 6 First Congo War

1,500,000[39] 2,000,000[39]War in Afghanistan

Afghanistan 1979 2000 22

Soviet-Afghan War, Taliban Era. Death toll estimates through 1999 (2M) and 2000 (1.5M and 2M).

5

3.0 THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF MAN IS HIS INABILITY TO BE AT PEACE WITH

HIMSELF

Of all the challenges man face, of all the problems he battles with in this world, amidst all man's hardships and travails, the greatest inability of man is the inability of man to be at peace with himself.. The concept of being at peace with oneself can't be described as being content or accepting the situations around oneself notwithstanding how inconvenient they may seem. The result of this great inability of man is war.

This inability is man's greatest challenge in that, according to a recent research conducted by the students of engineering of the university of Lagos, 200level during the course of completing a project in September 2014, it was found that the top 10 most fatal occurrences in the history of man were all war. War! A man-made occurrence merely due to the fact that man is simply unable to be at peace with himself and manage his fellow man and also situations around him.

This inability is the greatest in that man has not been able to find a lasting solution to curb, prevent or eradicate occurrences of war or even its various distasteful after effects, although they are man-caused. So many natural disasters have been curbed and even the unpreventable ones has been controlled for instance people on purpose don't build houses around areas with volcanic tendencies, making vaccines to cure diseases threatening the lives of people e,g measles but even the forming of the league of nations was not able to stop the occurrence of world war II. War is caused by man, and that which is caused by man hasn't been prevented by man over the years. Instead, the occurrence of war is becoming more frequent as times go by. What a great challenge is this inability!

Apart from the huge fatality always accompanying war, the occurrence of a single war can cripple the economy of nations involved, causes land waste i.e. places used as war zones, and can even causes the technological development of a nation to dragged back in time. All these cannot be causes by any single other challenge that man faces. Infact, if there is anything that threatens the very existence of man; it is the inability of man to be at peace with himself.

We can now see that the inability of man to be at peace with himself is to a very great extent as we here of peace talks so many times but then more often than none, these peace talks end up stalemated, as the end product is more war. We can also conclude that man's greatest challenge is this inability as it has been causing us great harm right from the days of the walking man.

6

4.0 UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA, IT’S INABILITY TO PARTAKE IN GLOBAL ISSUES

Since the end of colonial rules in Africa, in 1960, Africa has remained underdeveloped. These has led to lower living standard, underdeveloped industrial base, low human development base, low GDP, less education, hunger, poor health.

This underdevelopment has influenced Africa level of participation in global issues, even in issues pertaining to Africa itself. And these is one of the main reasons African states lack the membership of most of the world ruling groups or being an active member of world congress and summit.

We might ask how underdevelopment affects Africa’s ability to partake in global issues. I have discussed below, the consequences of underdevelopment and there part in hindering Africa’s level of participation or decision making in the world.

Poor level of education, these is one of the major effects of underdevelopment. In most African states, a majority of its citizens are illiterate. Our system of education has been hampered by poor educational facilities like lack of good laboratories, class rooms, libraries etc., lack of trained professionals. Lack of up to date syllables and curriculum (as most universities still use out dated syllables; A student in FUTA, Nigeria is learning FOTRAN (an outdated programming language) while the world has goon far to more dynamic programming languages like F#, C#, C++ etc.). It might even be reckoned that this is the main reason that African universities cannot produce worthy doctorates. With all these reasons, we would see that in a world congress on education, Africa would not have an upper hand in making a decision since our educational system is dead, unlike countries like USA, Germany, UK, Russia, etc.

Poor health which is caused by lack of proper education, lack of medical skills, personnel, lack of medical facilities, mismanagement is a good characteristics of an underdeveloped nation. In African states, there is a current trend of poor health features which has made the fatality of current epidemics very fatal. Take a case study of Liberia, a war thriven nation in West Africa. The current outbreak of Ebola disease has shown how weak and inactive their health system is. From CDC website (updated 08/10/14)1, the total number of death in Liberia alone is 2316 deaths. I believe if Liberia is as developed as the western nations like USA, the death toll would not get these high. Most of aids we receive concerning our current health challenges are foreign aids from developed nations. So tell me in a world conference on health challenges would we be the one impacting? Obviously no, since we have always been a case study in conferences.

Poor GDP (gross domestic product): The GDP measures the size of a country’s economy. It can also be used in its refined way which is per-capita GDP or at purchasing power parity i.e. GDP (PPP). Based on these scale, it is a norm for underdeveloped nations to fall on the lowest of these

7

scale. According to data from global finance 2 (extracted on 13/10/14), most African nation occupies the first 20 rows as the poorest nations in the world with Congo being the first (i.e. the poorest country on planet earth). These has shown that the poorer a country is the lesser the GDP. How then does these affect Africa’s stake in the world leadership forum? We should remember that the world group of nations congresses that is the G4, G8, G12, G22 each have qualities which a nation must portray before being a member examples of these qualities are high GDP per capita, industrialization etc. out of all the nations in Africa, only south Africa is a member of a branch in the G8 (i.e. O5, the outreach of five) 3.These group of nations are the world rulers of the present day. So for Africa to be able to participate in world issues, it should increase her nations’ GDP and secure more seats in the membership of these groups.

From the above reasons we could see that the inability of African nations to partake in global issues is due to her underdeveloped state. So to become leaders of the world, we have to solve our development issues first.

5.0 VARIOUS PICTURES SHOWING RESULTS OF NATURAL DISASTERS AND WAR

8

9

10

11

12

6.0 References 1. http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/top-5-most-expensive-natural-d/47459

^ a b c d The world's worst natural disasters Calamities of the 20th and 21st centuries CBC News'.' Retrieved 2010-10-29.

^ "NOVA Online | Flood! | Dealing with the Deluge". Pbs.org. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

^ "Top 10 Deadliest Earthquakes". Time. January 13, 2010. Retrieved May 8, 2010.

^ a b "The Worst Natural Disasters by Death Toll". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2008-04-06. Retrieved 2011-03-11.

^ a b "10 'Worst' Natural Disasters". Eas.slu.edu. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

^ a b "Death toll of 1920 China earthquake higher than previously estimated". News.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ a b Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Understanding Global Security, Peter Hough, 2008, chapter 8, page 192, table 8.1 'The ten worst natural disasters in history'

^ a b "The Peru Earthquake: A Special Study". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Oct 1970: 17.

^ ThinkQuest Team #C003603. "Hurricanes: case studies". Library.thinkquest.org. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

^ David Longshore (2008). Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones, New Edition. Facts on File, New York, NY, US. Retrieved 2013-12-03.

^ 1882 Bombay cyclone. "1882 Bombay cyclone Cyclone Information". Natural-disaster.findthedata.org. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ "Cyclones". Nih.ernet.in. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Earthquakes with 50,000 or More Deaths

^ 1976 Tangshan earthquake#Death toll

^ "Mortality, crime and access to basic needs before and after the Haiti earthquake: a random survey of Port-au-Prince households". Taylor Francis Online. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ "Earthquakes with 50,000 or More Deaths". Earthquake.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ "Today in Earthquake History". Earthquake.usgs.gov. 2012-10-02. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

13

^ Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ "Construction of Earthquake Resistant Buildings and Infrastructure Implementing Seismic Design and Building Code in No rthern Pakistan 2005 Earthquake Affected Area". International Journal of Business and Social Science. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ "Deaths from Earthquakes in 2008". Earthquake.usgs.gov. 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Syria: Halab (Aleppo),Dimashq (Damascus). "Syria: Halab (Aleppo),Dimashq (Damascus) Earthquake of 1169". Earthquakes.findthedata.org. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ "What was the magnitude of the Syria: Halab (Aleppo),Dimashq (Damascus) Earthquake in 1169?". Earthquakes.findthedata.org. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ Paula Dunbar. "Significant Earthquake". Ngdc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-13.

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=211&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=2143&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=152&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=376&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=208&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=335&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ a b The Opportunity of a Disaster: The Economic Impact of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. Discussion Paper 06/03, Centre for Historical Economics and Related Research at York, York University, 2006

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=217&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/lingkungan/conversations/topics/37181

14

^ http://earthquakes.findthedata.org/l/223/Tunisia-Tunis-Syria-Egypt-Yemen

^ http://earthquakes.findthedata.org/q/223/27/How-many-casualties-did-the-Tunisia-Tunis-Syria-Egypt-Yemen-Earthquake-in-856-cause

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=1054&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=81&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=159&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=607&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ http://earthquakes.findthedata.org/l/1220/Egypt-Al-qahirah-cairo

^ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=1336&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display

^ "Worst Natural Disasters In History". Nbc10.com. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

^ 229,000 is the highest of a range of unofficial estimates, including also deaths of ensuing epidemics and famine, in Yi 1998

^ Kanoko Matsuyama; Shigeru Sato (13 July 2011). "Heatstroke Deaths Quadruple as Japan Shuns Air Conditioners to Save Power". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 1 June 2012. "last year, when a record 1,718 people died of heatstroke as the summer heat broke records."

^ 2003 Southern India heat wave

^ Eric Klinenberg (July 30, 2002). "Dead Heat: Why don't Americans sweat over heat-wave deaths?". Slate. Retrieved 30 July 2010

CDC web page, extracted on 13/10/14 from http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/case-counts.html?mobile=nocontent

Global finance webpage, extracted on 13/10/2014 from http://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/the-poorest-countries-in-the-world

G8 Wikipedia webpage, extracted on 13/10/2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8

15