Environmental disaster management and risk reduction

Abstract

The environment can be well-defined as all forms that surround both living elements (such as humans or animals, fishes and birds) as well as non-living elements, itself classified as both moving (such as air and water) and non-moving (such as mountains and forests). Human activities do interact with the bio-physical environment in a multifaceted manner connecting different geographical levels. The existence of all living forms on this planet gradually evolved to build a healthy and well-balanced environment throughout the space and time. The new economic demand should operate in a way that shields the biophysical environment to maintain the balanced and sustainable growth both at the present and in the future. We must not merely consider the natural resources, such as forests, as carbon sinks. Rather, it is the time to reconsider them as vital resources that provide vital elements such as fresh air for our crucial survival. Human beings inhale oxygen from the environment and release carbon dioxide back while plants simultaneously absorb carbon dioxide and give out oxygen, thus maintaining a balance between the two. Another significant contributor to the GHGs is the livestock emission (mostly Methane) which many of us often ignore. Radical changes in either of the consumption-release patterns can lead to an unmanageable environmental balance. Presently the world is facing enormous population growth and pressure. Capitalism has fuelled it by exploiting natural resources at a faster pace than ever. Formerly, nature itself used to check ecological balance through extreme events such as natural disasters as well as hazardous epidemics. The arrival of modern health care systems and advancements in the field of science and technology can control epidemics and diminish the effects of natural disasters today. At the same time, we are becoming increasingly susceptible to diseases and the rate is rapidly increasing. The complexity of the man-nature relationship has significantly altered in today's world. In the past, nature was seen as necessary and beneficial on which amplification of human need in today's world has left its footprint. Therefore, a minor environmental change nowadays puts significant impacts on human life. However, the perception of what constitutes a 'hazard' and 'disaster' changes over time (Paton and Johnston, 2001; Furedi, 2007). A hazard is a dangerous incident that brings a menace to humans, while a disaster is a stern disturbance striking over a shorter or longer duration that grounds extensive material and/or, or ecological loss for the both human and natural enevironments that surpasses the capacity of the impacted community to survive back using its immediate own resources again (Hankins, 2015). Hazards will be considered disasters once they affect humans, but if they occur in an unpopulated area, they will remain hazardous. Since the man-nature relationship is not identical over different periods of time and at different places, the intensity of disasters or natural outbreaks are different accordingly (Zhao et al., 2006). Developing countries pay the most once a disaster hits. These fatalities in developing countries due to natural hazards are over 20 times bigger in terms of GDP than the industrialised countries (Peduzzi et al., 2002).