Hazards and Disasters

We learned to describe a hazard and disaster and identified some hazards around ourclassroom, school, community and the wider world.
Hazards
We identified hazards around our school and classroom. We found out thta a hazard is a phenomenon or a process, either natural or humanmade,that can endanger a group of people, their belongings and their environment, if they do not take precautions.
There are different types of hazards. Some are natural while others are caused by human beings, such as so-called industrial or technological hazards (explosions, fires, toxic chemical spillages). Wars and terrorism are also hazards caused by humans.These hazards can turn into disasters, but only under certain conditions. Earthquakes are natural hazards.

Disasters
A disaster is a tradegy from a natural or human-made hazard that negatively affects society or environment.
A disaster takes place when the following three conditions occur at the same time:
When people live in hazardous places eg close to an active volcano, on unstable slopes where landslides are likely to happen, close to rivers which could flood.
When a hazardous natural phenomenon occurs eg an earthquake or man-made.
When the phenomenon eg an earthquake causes a lot of damage.

Are disasters caused by people or by nature?
Natural phenomena can sometimes strike very hard and cause disasters if preventive measures have not been taken or if some human activities have harmed the natural environment or upset the balance of the ecosystem. For instance, too much water that the soil is unable to absorb can cause floods, while too little water in some regions can lead to drought. But people can make the situation worse, for example when trees are chopped down and no new ones are planted. This makes the soil very dry and dusty, which can lead to erosion. When the rains come, there are not enough roots and vegetation to bind the soil together, and a landslide can occur. If we destroy parts of nature such as coral reefs, forests, or fragile mountain plants, weare destroying the natural barriers that protect us from tsunamis, drought, landslides, floods and other hazards.