Cartographic Response to Changes in Teaching Geography and History - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 204

Table 17.1 Natural disasters in 2011 (January-March), data by McKibben ( 2011 )
Types of disaster Place Time, 2011 Human cost Economic cost

Earthquake of
magnitude
9.0, followed
by a 15-20 m
high tsunami

Japan, north-east
coast

March More than 10,000

dead; 17,000
missing

215 billion

€

Landslide Brasilia January 916 dead; 345

missing

213 million

€

Floods Australia Nov.,

2010-January

37 dead, nine
missing

22 billion—
Australia's
costliest
natural
disaster ever

€

Earthquake of
magnitude
6.3 hit the
city of
Christchurch

New Zealand February 166 dead € 5-7.6 billion

Devastating
floods

Sri Lanka January-February 62 dead; 1.1 million

displaced

€ 340 million

Earthquake of
magnitude
6.8

Myanmar
(Burma), 30
miles north of
Tachileik on
the
Thai-Burma
border

March At least 75 dead;

more than 110
injured

Not known in
April 3rd,
2011

Floods, heavy
rains
continued
from
December
last year

Philippines January-March At least 75 dead 30 million

€

Severe storms,
lightning and
floods

South Africa January 91 dead, 321 injured 83 million

€

scientists and journalist already defined 2011 as “a year of disasters”. McKibben
( 2011 ) gives us some data, which are summed up in several countries and millions
of people were affected during the first 3 months of 2011 (see Table 17.1 ). How
cartographers will respond to children from Japan, Brasilia, Australia,
New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Burma, Philippines, and South Africa? In these cases, it
is clear that we are not ready to give response, we are too slow to change something.
We are not ready with standards and visualization of those geographical process
that are happening around nowadays. These statements make it evident that more
scientists are needed to work on these topics, more projects should be financed and
developed, more governments should help the scientists to develop standards
and fast responses to everyday changes. They should give enough information
and knowledge to our children and pupils and prepare them for the right behaviour.