Large-scale catastrophes have unfolded at an unprecedented rate recently; of the 25 most costly insured world catastrophes in the past 40 years, two-thirds have occurred since 2001. The scale and intrinsic nature of risks is changing. And globalization continues to intensify. As a result, the time-worn concepts that all risks can be quantified and managed locally, and that disasters are improbable enough that they can be considered marginal are clearly outdated. To address these issues and develop sound policies, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and its 30 member countries launched an international network on the financial management of large-scale catastrophes several years ago. As risks become more interdependent, so must an organization's responses.
In a grim reminder of 2005's destructiveness, the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season caused insured losses up to $25 billion -- $13 billion for Hurricane Ike alone -- and could affect 2009 reinsurance renewal rates. But the just-concluded season may pack less of a punch than the multiple natural catastrophes in the first half of 2008 and the stormy world economy that followed. Reinsurers are keeping their renewal rates close to the vest until January 2009. With estimated losses between $13 billion and $21 billion, Ike could become the third-costliest hurricane in US history after Katrina and Andrew. However, the credit crisis likely will prove more costly to reinsurers than Ike, said Paddy Jago, CEO of Willis Re. It will be difficult for either the primary or reinsurance markets to raise ca...
Is China set to take a "Great Leap Backward"? Environmental catastrophes may loom in the world's largest and fastest-growing nation, according to Elizabeth Economy, a scholar with the mainstream Council on Foreign Relations. Those ills will be felt far beyond China's own borders as burgeoning Chinese industries pollute air and water that affect many continents, she writes in the September-October Foreign Affairs journal.
It didn't take Tudor Davis long to figure out the best end of a torpedo. His first berth in the Navy was on the USS Tuscaloosa, a heavy cruiser that escorted several convoys through the North Atlantic to the Soviet port of Murmansk. The Murmansk run could be a shooting gallery for German air and naval forces. In July 1942, Davis had a front-row seat for one of the hallmark Allied catastrophes of World War II, when most of the 35 merchant ships in Convoy PQ 17 were sunk.
With Los Angeles County marking 50 years of its Civil Defense program while the mother of all disaster films - "2012" - plays in theaters, officials are renewing efforts to prepare the public for catastrophes. Perhaps the end of the world is not around the corner, but officials note that Southern California suffers from enough smaller- scale disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires and riots to make planning ahead a necessity.
Chlorination" involves the addition of chlorine to water for the purpose of eliminating pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms. It also provides protection against disagreeable tastes and odors; eliminates slime bacteria, mold and algae; removes chemical compounds that inhibit disinfection; and helps remove iron and manganese from water. In 1997, the editors of Life magazine stated that the filtration of drinking water plus the use of chlorine were probably the most significant public-health advances of the millennium. Prior to 1908 and the onset of widespread and routine treatment of drinking water with chlorine, waterborne diseases exacted a heavy toll in terms of illnesses and death in the United States. Today, most water-related disease outbreaks are associated with disinfecti...
With Los Angeles County marking 50 years of its Civil Defense program while the mother of all disaster films - "2012" - plays in theaters, officials are renewing efforts to prepare the public for catastrophes. Perhaps the end of the world is not around the corner, but officials note that Southern California suffers from enough smaller- scale disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires and riots to make planning ahead a necessity.
With Los Angeles County marking 50 years of its Civil Defense program at the same time that the mother of all disaster films - "2012" - plays in theaters, officials are renewing efforts to prepare the public for catastrophes. Perhaps the end of the world is not around the corner, but officials note that Southern California suffers from enough smaller- scale disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires and riots to make planning ahead a necessity.
WASHINGTON - International disaster experts have concluded that a major vulnerability in natural catastrophes lies hidden beneath our cities. As the world's cities get bigger and land more expensive, more vital services and structures end up underground. These crucial subterranean networks of electrical generators and lines, communications equipment, computers, subways, parking garages, sewer lines and roads are vulnerable to massive flooding and earthquake damage.
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