Editor's note: Micah Zenko is a fellow for conflict prevention at the Council on Foreign Relations. The views expressed are his own. This article originally appeared at CFR.org.
“Oppressive Heat,” “Chimp Attacks,” “Sharks,” “Forest Fires,” “Africanized Bees,” “Death by Drowning.” These hard-hitting reports have been staples of the mainstream media since Publick Occurrences: Both Forreign and Domestick first hit the presses in September 1690. Today, news broadcasts and reality television depict harrowing tales of the enemy that Americans must collectively fear and face: nature.
Outside of our climate-controlled studio apartments, McMansions, and office cubicles, nature doesn’t simply exist, but happens to us: sharks choose to swim dangerously close to popular beaches, chimpanzees lure humans into their cages, and forest fires and raging floods dare to strike picturesque neighborhoods, and pools (or watery graves) rest in backyards, beckoning humans to dive in.
Beyond our personal safety and peace of mind, nature poses a threat to critical infrastructures once exclusively targeted by al-Qaeda. Solar flares (or God’s Electromagnetic Pulse) disrupting the electric grid is “arguably the largest natural-disaster scenario that the nation could face.” That’s no joke. A 2008 study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that a “severe geomagnetic storm scenario” could cost the United States up to $2 trillion in the first year, as compared to its “weakling” cousins Hurricane Katrina (roughly $125 billion) or the 2003 blackout in the northeast ($10 billion, or the equivalent of a month of war in Afghanistan).
Despite the catchy headlines, nature slew a paltry 3,168 Americans – or 1.2 percent of all deaths – in 2008 (the most recently updated data). In comparison, Americans are nearly eleven times more likely to die in an automobile accident than fall victim to nature. And a stickler could point out that more than 80 percent of all forest fires are started by humans, virtually all climate scientists attribute global warming to human activities, and that the installation of a four-sided fence around a pool reduces the likelihood of children drowning by 83 percent. Such statistics are nature’s way of seducing you into the antiquated notions that we have agency over our lives and that protecting the earth is a shared societal responsibility.
To get a sense of the scope of this scourge, see below for Mother Nature’s kill list (click to expand), and how it compares with the relatively overblown (albeit very real) threats of noncommunicable diseases, firearms, and automobiles. So the next time you’re thinking about going for a drive to your favorite restaurant or shooting range, play it safe and stay indoors.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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"chimpanzees lure humans into their cages" – I am googling this one...lol
It's written tongue in cheek. He's being sarcastic–
"Come human! Let me show you my lovely banana peal collection. Come come! Come into my cage! My collection is right over there. Come closer, human. That's it...that's it! Closer....closer....almost there!" ;op
this happened a week or two ago, recall the incident at an African game farm? a couple of grown chimps pulled a careless staffer under the fence and mauled him almost to death. they would have killed him except soembody showed up with a gun after about 20 minutes.
...here it is.
That's what I am worry about.
Nature is too strong and unbeatable. The Mankind can tried the best to defend. But, the defence can not go beyond 10%. More than 90%, Mother Nature kept winning and expected to exceed.
...nice try, though.
Wow! what a truly intelligent, articulate entry, with numbers on top of that...
P.S Don't quit your day job. (if you have one that is)
ok, now you write something awesome in whatever language ethnio speaks at home. he writes like an english -as a -second- language guy. you sound like a typical fluent-in-multiple-languages, sophisticated world traveling American.
This article shows we can't beat Mother Nature and we can't dodge death neither.
Manfred – You sound like an islamic pig.
Go direct the conversation where people want to listen to your sermons.
Probably written by a chimp...
That's just what the chimps want us to believe. You're all like, "Hah, P. troglodytes is too stupid to write a response like a human!" but the next thing you know you're locked up in one of their cages while they try to discover fire so they can cook you.
What a good point.
It's quite TRUE.
I suspect that English is not this person's first language.
I be thinkin' not; maybe he should upgrade to Ebonics.
It looks much better than yours. Re-read, what you have written. Yours is garbage.
You get em mother nature. What have we ever done for you?
Sad by true.
Serious, you don't know?
He said "for you" not "to you".
And so many people feel that humans are the pinnacle of life on Earth. hahahahaha. Nature is the strongest force. If you happen to believe in god then you have to know that god created nature. Stop believing the crap the the German printed and think for yourselves for a change. Believe in a god if you wish but stop reading about it in the fairy tale book.
MOTHER NATURE is being Buggered by The Fossil Fuel Industry and a BILLION People are Likely to DIE This Century because of IT From Drought and Famine and flood and Plague. Is THAT Scary Enough for You? Don't forget NUCLEAR WAR Once the Famine is GLOBAL.
Exactly....I love all of these other scenarios "humans" try to throw out to dispute this very basic and simple fact. – Re the fossil fuel industry. I live in a 'fossil fuel economic meca' at the moment and it is easy to see why they do, however: People are having a great time HERE and NOW. We will all eventually probably suffer though, but maybe we will learn some important things also...
Nah. We're all gonna skate right into peaceful death. It's our children and grand children that will learn the lessons of our greedy folly and pay the aweful price as they try to repair a damaged world. So says Mother Nature.
When will you get tired of trying to scare people? Coal burning is down by 50% in the last four years, it is forecasted to continue to decline for the next eight. Go sell your scary scenarios somewhere else.
We treat the planet like a giant toilet... why should anyone be surprised when nature strikes back?
Anthropomorphize much?
"since September" WHEN?!?!?!
Now _that's_ news!
" ...depict harrowing tales of the enemy that Americans must collectively fear and face: nature." Since when is nature our "enemy" considering we are natural and "nature" provides our basic needs such as food and water???
Ditto again – So ridiculous and ignorant, this sort of talk! (embarrassing really)
There is no "mother nature" in creation. It is the Lord God of creation who is trying to get the attention of the Americans "who are called by His name, to humble themselves and seek His face...." and He will yet save the nation.
mother nature is a lot older than your god fairy tales and she rules all. do you not think other countries also suffer catastrophies?
sounds like you have a REALLY weird s e x fetish not a religion
all this humble before you stuff.......
I hope not
You can take your hairy masculine deity and shove it up your rancid christian @ss. Mama Nature is all that there is, fool!
So he will only save one nation? Wow. What a spiteful and very biased God you serve. I seem to recall that God is supposed to love everyone equally and unconditionally. But that doesn't fit into your "One nation under God" ideal does it. Funny though, that that statement only came about as an anti-communism sentiment, and wasn't originally part of our nations creed until the mid 20th century. That would be like saying that Parliament was always a part of English history. Or that since the Queen reigns England now, England has always been ruled by a queen. Go brush up on your history, and really read your religious texts instead of regurgitating the foul biased defecate than you are hearing in your local place of worship.
I'm Christian, but why would God 'attempt to get our attention' via random descructive events in the Natural World? I mean, He could communicate in another fashion if He wished. I just don't get it as to why God supposedly whips up a Hurricane to 'show displeasure' but can't bother to have a weekly TV show?
Yes you can call yourself Christian but, evidently, you have no idea what a Christian feels.
The Bible does not push Christians to performe violent, inhumane, hateful, lustful acts like the cooooorunn.
Yeah for Mother Nature! Its time she struck back and I hope it will be much harder!!! She has been used and abused for far too long. I'm placing all bets on her ability to cleanse and regenerate. Go Mama, Go!
Is it a wonder? We have abused and exploited the earth for too long and are still doing it. This reminds me of the movie (can't remember the name off hand) the day after all humans were gone, how nature started it's rebirth, how, in a short time plants took over the cities of concrete. We brought this on ourselves. Trees don't grow to heaven and mankind does not deserve the beauty and the splendor that was given. Brace yourselves, it will be a final ride for us.
Thanks Isabella for your reply. I really appreciate your feedback on the article despite the fact that I wasn't in favour of what the writer did write.
Life After People. It is a series about what would theoretically happen if humans suddenly disappeared from the planet.
mother nature is fed up with giant ag, MONSANTO and others messing with her. you go mom.
Romney vs. Frankenstein (Obama)
Put simply, better the devil you don't know. Vote Romney.
You really think either Romney,Obama or any politician is going to change your life ? Waste of time voting.We could use a benevolent dictator these days.
WOW!
thanks for showing us the incredibly stooooooooopid thought process of the radical right trolls
you radicals have pushed me to voting dem and I am NO obama fan
Sorry to say this but this is one of the poorest artciles I have ever came across. Thanks to whoever tried this but try harder next time.
Have a safe weekend
Ishmael
You are Abdul, the tent maker.
What concerns me more is the 99.9% mortality rate for humans.
What is your definition of "humans"?
Not enough 9's on your .9999 (etc). But point taken. Life is deadly, but what's the alternative?
So .001% is immortal? I think I'm one. I haven't died yet.
Hey.... "No such thing as global warming". Go ask Mitt Romney.
What about death from tobacco related products?
est. 450,000 a year in the U.S.
Tobacco is a product of nature isn't it?
so was Saeed's mother and look what happened!
Find a new obsession – what about the 300,000 obesity-related deaths?
I find this article hastyly written...And off any major point. Yes this is the 1 year of the culmination of the solar flares, it also comes with El Nino as a bonus. The solar circle came up to this point and as all other universal afairs it will wane in time- say another 2-3 years. But didn't anyone tell you? Althought it will not be as the Mayans predicted it, it is a nice year to go out in the sun and get skin cancers on hight solar radiation. Yep. The whether has been, is, and will be hectic. But this was predicted... No, scientifically calculated and stated long ago. Weather events will be harsher. For example we got a hail storm in the middle of June in İstanbul. Staying out was like getting stoned by ice-balls.City people may get this easy. But they still need bread which grows out out there in fields. Airconditioned generation may not be affected of climet changes, but the harvest does. And vice versa.
Reading through these comments makes me lose faith in humankind. Did anyone even get the point of the article? Or maybe I shouldn't have any faith in humankind to begin with, given that, as the article points out, we are the biggest danger to our own species.
Life is fatal!
It seems there's an arithmetic error in this argument. If 3,168 deaths due to nature represents 1.2% of all deaths, then there would have been only 3,168 = 0.012 x Total deaths, or 3,168 / 0.012 = 264,000 total deaths in the US in 2008. Based on the table and the fact that there are in excess of 300,000,000 Americans, it looks like the correct figure should be 2,640,000 total deaths in 2008. This adjusts the figure to show that nature was in fact responsible for only 0.12% of total deaths. Correcting this typo only strengthens the author's thesis that deaths by nature are insignificant and over-reported compared to anthropogenic causes.
this is why I'm for strip mining, fracking, drill baby drill, no controls over polluters and allowing corporations to run rough shod over every thing
ya know we go thru all the work to clean up the hudson river so it can be "enjoyed" again and sure enough someone drowns in it............. mother nature is a be atch and I say we take her out
oh and we need to quit driving and owning guns too
You know thus considerably in terms of this topic, made me in my view consider it from numerous varied angles. Its like women and men aren't interested except it is something to accomplish with Girl gaga! Your own stuffs excellent. At all times take care of it up!
Nature has developed humanity for thousands of years and now we find ourselves at a crossroads. We find ourselves at the mercy of nature, in crises. The root of the crises is as followes, on the one hand we find ourselves confronted with a global, integral world but on the other hand, we are programmed to serve our own best self-interest. Nature is pressuring toward mutual cooperation and responsibity for each other. To agree to the process is the only way out of the situation.
HINDU GODDESS MOTHER KALI 'S KILL LIST
A recent report by United Press trust of India (UPI) stated that during the past three years more than 2,500 young boys and girls were sacrificed to goddess Kali in India. Another of AFP's recent reports say: hundreds of young boys and virgin girls are sacrificed every month for the deity Kali. In one case Rama Sewak hacked his eight year old son to death in broad daylight in Delhi because goddess Kali had told him he would come back to life and bring him good fortune. Bloodthirsty Kali is worshipped openly the length and breadth of India. Kali's statue stands naked astride the inanimate body of the Hindu deity Shiva, tongue stuck out with blood dripping from fang-like teeth. She holds a noose, a skull-topped staff, a blood-encrusted sword and a severed head. She is also known as Durga, Devi, Shaktima, Uma and Parvathi in other manifestations. The priest of Delhi, Kali Bari, says that a child sacrificed to Kali ensures a man the birth of a son. Human sacrifices are also made to these gods or goddesses, either to appease them or to ask favours of them.
WOW !! Wonder why indians don't use her for population control.
I have been needing a new nasty Goddess, I may build her a temple
Did you all miss the point of the article. Nature killed fewer people than diseases, cars and guns.
Yes, I think some of the folks who commented must have skimmed it and completely missed the point. Didn't we all have to read "A Modest Proposal" in high school?
So, death by 'non-communicable disease' is not due to nature?!
It's satire. He's making fun of how people fear dying of shark bite and such which are very unlikely, but we get in our cars every day and drive and never give it a second thought, despite the large number of people who die in car crashes. Hey, you don't want to get bitten by a snake, so stay inside and smoke that cigarette and eat that twinkie and have a heart attack.....
Anyone notice that, of all those deaths, drowning was the single biggest contributor? 43% of the total (not including that one death via "Contact with marine animal")! Friends don't let friends swim! Don't go in the water, man!!!
You should be fearing God the creator of earth more than the earth itself. He created it and will destroy in the end. If you are saved you will join Him in the New earth he will create.
You people are nuts. In another few decades religion will be swept into the dustbin of quaint but persistent anachronisms from an early phase of our species's development.
Why doesn't this list include the 2004 Tsunami that wiped out 250,000 people in a single day.
A tsunami killed 250,000 Americans? Really? Read much?
To live as a human being is to pollute the environment from the very start until the very end. If all the pieties we hear and read about saving the planet really mattered to us, mankind would have been promoting birth control on a massive scale ever since it became possible to do so early in the twentieth century. Massive numbers of human lives doomed to misery and early death would not have been prodced. Massive numbers of those human lives could not have be used to flood countries of the West that had attained a desirable level of well-being thanks to birth control. There is not a single problem facing the planet and ourselves that is not somehow connected with the sabotage of meaningful birth control policies.
There is not such thing as mother nature, but there is a God. Romans 1:20- "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
Q – How do we know there is a God?
A – The Bible tells us so.
Q – Why should we believe the Bible?
A – Because, it's the word of God.
That's called circular reasoning.
Q. How do we know there is a GOD?
A. The evidence is all around us. (creation/universe)
Q. Why should we believe the Bible?
A. Because things foretold in the Bible thousands of years ago are coming true today. Also no book has more accurate prophecies than the Bible. And just to throw it out there the Bible is the most powerful and popular book in worlds history.
Q. How do you know the empire state building has a designer?
A. Because well desigend and constructed buildings do not coincedently pop up out of know where.
Q. Is the worlds engineering more complex than anything man has made?
A. Hell yes by infinity.
Al Gore is in control of the weather....and the internet. LOL
No millipede is venomous. Rats and mice cause main health issue by spreading deadly hanta viruses in urine. Biting attacks are not the safety concern here. I don't regard this list as authentic. It seems to have been constructed by the uninformed.
rats are worshipped in India by hindus. they drink rat pee also.
Are you braggin' or complainin'
More than 2000 years ago Jesus spoke of the things happening today (End of time). Matthew 24:7-"Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world." Luke 21;11-"There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven."
Oh yeah? Read Luke 22:36. Dedinitely describes one of Jesus' bad hair days.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA lolol omg lololoololol omg bro that was probably one of the funniest and most original jokes ive ever heard in my entire life. wow that ws funny, make sure you tell your family and friends that yesterday you posted the funniest joke about Jesus. Good one good one your on your way buddy.
That is funny. Haven't those prophecies come true before? Oh, those must have been a mistake by the flawed views of the flawed humans who observed the events. Either that or your God has one sick sense of humor.
Everybody keeps wondering when the World will end. If you listen to those whom have certain religious beliefs it will be very soon. But I have always believed that the World will be here as it always has. It won't end.......but man's time on it just might. Between killer comets and astroids, nuclear weapons, and natural disasters the Earth will be battle scarred but not destroyed. Man on the other hand will probably come as close to extinction as possible.
I am surprised there was not any deaths by rat bites, While in the Philippines my son pointed to a large rat and said "hay dad look at the opossum", I replied that is not a opossum.
Ha ha! Good one! I live deep in the mountain forest and I finally had to board up the doggy door to keep those 'giant rats' out of my cabin and eating up my cat's and dog's food!
The writer picked 2008 to show the low number of deaths attributed to nature. How about 2004 when a quarter of a million people were killed by the tsunami?
Well if you made a list like this for the Dinosaurs, it wouldn't have predicted what happened to them.
1big meteor ....100% death rate.
Mother Nature Shall kill off all wicked devils with her Scorching Heat!
The truth is; we will all be a lot better off when we learn to live "with" nature instead of against it, our future will depend on exactly that... http://www.naturewalkswithmark.org/
Remember we are the top of the food chain, when we see a cow we imagine hamburger. As ends meet, when germs, bacteria and virus 'see' uswe are seen as 'food' .