Runoff from Hurricane Sandy hadn't dried before some were declaring it "the storm of the century." Maybe it was, but it's too early to say for sure. Despite the immense destruction, it certainly wasn't the biggest natural disaster in the world or even in the US.
"Historical records show that worse hurricanes have occurred before but did less damage because there were fewer homes and businesses in the path of the storm surge," reported Physicians for Civil Defense (PCD), a nonprofit group in Tucson, Ariz.
Climate-change proponents were equally quick to blame civilization's carbon footprint for generating more numerous and more destructive storms. But PCD said, "The lesson from this hurricane is that we need better disaster preparedness, not less use of coal and oil."
PCD Pres. Jane M. Orient said, "We need an increase in reliable electrical generating capacity, as from coal-fired, natural gas, and nuclear power plants." Reports of power outages in 17 states and Canada from Hurricane Sandy "should show the folly of deliberate destruction of coal-fired plants, as would result from Environmental Protection Agency regulations now being written," she said.
Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman of IHS, also called for better preparations for energy disruptions. "This requires planning for resilience and striving for the best information for decision-making. It also requires prepositioning the knowledge so that governments and private sector can communicate smoothly and quickly," he said.
"One of the biggest lessons from these kinds of crises," Yergin said, "is the importance of allowing markets to work, as they bring supplies back into balance much more quickly than systems of allocation and price controls."
Worse disasters
The problem with blaming natural disasters on fossil fuels is that many of the worse incidents in recent years had nothing to do with weather. One of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history—the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 that killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries—was triggered by an earthquake.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011 was caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that flooded the facility's emergency generators, cutting power to pumps circulating coolant through nuclear reactors and causing a meltdown that released radioactive materials. It was the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl explosion and fire in 1986. Fossil fuels played no part in the destruction of either of those alternative energy sources.
When it comes to harmful emissions, volcanos have factories and automobiles beat hands down. The relatively small eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland in 2010 released a cloud of ash that forced 20 European countries to close airspace in the biggest disruption of air travel since World War II.
Eruption of Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Wash., in 1980 instantly killed 57 people, destroyed hundreds of square miles of woodland and killed off game, inflicted $1 billion damage, melted glaciers, caused mudslides extending nearly 50 miles, and sprinkled ash across 11 states. The Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1990 forced emergency evacuation of dependents and nonessential personnel from Clark Air Base and the Subic Bay naval base in the Philippines, severely damaged both installations, and blasted a huge amount of ash around the world, lowering global temperatures 1° F. the following year. In the aftermath, the US Air Force pulled out of the Philippines.
And then there's Krakatoa in Indonesia whose 1883 explosion produced the world's loudest known sound heard more than 3,000 miles away. Its eruption produced erratic weather and spectacular sunsets for many months around the world. Of course, man's effect on weather may be a moot point if a mega volcano such as the vast thermal activity in Yellowstone Park were to blow. Some say its cumulative effect could spell the end of mankind.
