The Humanitarian Challenge for the Twenty-First Century: The Right to Survive

An average of almost 250 million people are affected by ‘natural’ disasters every year. Between 1998 and 2007, 98 per cent of people suffered from climate-related disasters such as droughts and floods rather than, devastating but relatively rare events such as earthquakes. New research for this report, indicates that by 2015 this could grow by more than 50 per cent , to an average of over 375 million affected by climate-related disasters each year. Any such projection is not an exact science, but it is clear that substantially more people may be affected by disasters in the near future, as climate change and environmental mismanagement create a proliferation of droughts, landslides, floods and other local disasters. And more people will be vulnerable to them because of their poverty and location. For more on the report visit:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900sid/RWST-7RASCL/$file/oxfam-apr2009.pdf?openelement