Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
functions. In particular, the number of various uncertainties which hinder a reliable
prediction of global ecodynamics is so large that without their purpose-oriented
analysis and selection all their interactions cannot be formally taken into account in
the global model. For instance, of millions of chemical compounds and species of
living organisms, only thousands have been adequately studied.
One of the numerous factors of the evolutionary processes development in the
NSS are sudden changes of the environmental characteristics that lead to stresses
for living organisms with their possible death. In various periods of evolution, the
scale and signi
cance of individual factors had changed. The role of catastrophic
processes taking place during 11,500 years in the present civilization development
is being studied within two international ICSU programs:
“
Dark Nature
—
Rapid
Natural Change and Human Responses
”
(started in 2004) and
“
The role of Holo-
cene environmental catastrophes in human history
”
(2003
−
2007). The main goals
of these projects are to:
examine how past societies and communities reacted in the face of harmful
change;
explore the implications of rapid natural change for current environmental and
public policies;
focus on the inter-disciplinary investigation of Holocene geological catastro-
phes, which are of importance for civilizations and ecosystems.
s evolution has been considered by Condie
(2005) who has analyzed the interaction of various components of the planet for the
last 4 million years, selecting those which have affected the history of the land
ecosystems, oceans, and the atmosphere. The current period is characterized by an
increasing trend of anthropogenically caused natural disasters, such as
A longer period of the Earth system
'
fl
floods, forest
and peat-bog
cation, and epidemics. Of course, not
always is it possible to distinguish between the causes of a natural disaster. But one
fact is apparent
fires, deforestation, deserti
the present ecodynamics is followed by an increase of the number
of extreme situations in the environment. Unfortunately, presence of statistics for
natural disasters no allows their prognosis with high reliability. Events of the 1998
fl
—
flooding in Bangladesh, the 2004 megathrust earthquake in Sumatra (Indonesia)
and the 2013 typhoon Haiyan on Philippines when was killed over then 50,000,
230,000 and 6,000 peoples, respectively, are examples of the abrupt natural events.
The contribution of different types of disasters to human losses and the economic
damage varies from year to year, but maximum victims result from earthquakes,
fl
floods, snow storms, and tsunami. For instance, of 700 natural disasters recorded in
1998, winter storms and
floods occurred in 240 and 170 cases, respectively, and the
resulting economic losses constituted 85 % of all
fl
losses. In Europe,
in mid-
November 1998, more than 215 people were frozen to death.
Natural disasters were during last years various. There have been 620 tornadoes
reported in the U.S.A. in
first six months of 2013 with 44 fatalities. 102 fatalities
have been con
res cover
numerous regions in Russia, U.S.A., Australia and Europe during summer 2012 and
2013. Intense
rmed worldwide in
first six months of 2013. Several wild
fl
floods were practically everywhere during last three years.
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