ABSTRACT
A major source of insecurity for much of the world’s population is rooted in the natural, non-living world, from physical phenomena originating in the Earth’s interior, its atmosphere and even from beyond our planet. The phrase ‘Acts of God’ encapsulates the notion of human helplessness in the face of such dangers which are out of our control, but the truth is that natural disasters are as much socio-political as geological or meteorological phenomena. Historically, floods and earthquakes have presented the greatest natural hazards to human life but, in the 1990s, windstorms claimed more lives. The Japanese authorities were well prepared for an earthquake but less so for the consequent tsunami. Earthquakes demonstrate the centrality of the social component in the onset of a disaster. Though the scale of seismic shocks in the Earth’s crust cannot be entirely predicted, the places where such shocks occur are well established. Sand and dust carried by windstorms can also present serious threats.
