Essay on The Effect of Natural Disaster on a Society

Even though it is currently possible to predict most natural disasters and minimize their consequences, major social impacts still have been seen over recent decades. In this essay, a natural disaster is defined as a naturally occurring event that exerts adverse effects onto human society, including those caused by geological factors and infectious organisms. It may result in a wide range of aftermaths, however, only the most prominent ones of these will be examined including casualties caused by a disaster, public health crises and economic depression. Firstly, the most direct and immediate impact of a natural disaster on a society is the loss of human life. In certain types of natural disasters large number of casualties may not†¦show more content†¦Besides geological causes, a global pandemic could also be devastating as the 1918 Spanish influenza killed 50 million globally with most of its victim being young adults (Taubenberger, Reid, Lourens, Wang, Jin Fanning, 2005, 889). Additionally, the number of death is often linked to the countries’ own situations. Higher death toll is associated with certain geographical location, less democratic political system, economic social disparity and weaker public institutions (Kahn, 2005, 271). Kahn has also observed slight correlation between natural disaster death and lower average income however this is considered to be minor. It should be noticed that a correlation does not imply causation (Kahn, 2005, 271). Therefore, wether improvement in one of those areas would effectively reduce the loss of human life in natural disasters should be carefully examined. In other words, it is possible that economical social disparity is a result of less powerful government and does not alone result in higher susceptibility of disaster death. 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