It seems the number of natural disasters is rising. Names like Katrina and Nargis, events like the Asian tsunami of 2004, the fires and flooding in Queensland and the earthquakes in Kashmir and Sichuan are still fresh in our minds. Right now, thousands of people in Thailand are clearing mud from their flooded homes, with many grieving for those who died.
Many scientists believe that climate change - seen clearly in such indicators as rising sea surface temperatures - is creating a trend towards more and bigger storms. Data from reinsurance giant Munich Re's Geo Risks Research unit shows the number of major storms and floods worldwide roughly doubling in the past 30 years. The trend for earthquakes has remained virtually level. Yet even they seem to have become deadlier. What is going on?
The simple explanation is that the human population is rising, and people in search of land are moving into regions that are more exposed to disasters. A small number of major earthquakes account for most of the deaths from natural disasters. The regions they affect - hilly regions in Pakistan or China, or coastal areas in Japan or the Indian Ocean - have more and bigger villages and towns than they did, say, 50 years ago.
People expose themselves in other ways. For example, replacing forests with farmland and turning countryside into concrete-covered towns is bound to make flooding worse than it would otherwise be.
Research by the World Bank shows that, in 160 countries and territories, more than 25per cent of the population live in areas exposed to a serious risk of deadly disasters. In the worst example, nearly 75per cent of the population and land area are vulnerable to three or more serious risks. This is not somewhere in Africa or South America; it is Taiwan.
Taiwan's worst experience in the past 30 years was the Nantou earthquake in 1999, which claimed over 2,400 lives and cost billions of dollars in damage. Typhoons Herb, Nari and, most recently, Morakot accounted for another 800 deaths and more billions lost.