Presenting 2010 as the deadliest year in more than a generation, scientists and disaster experts from Swiss Re, the University of Colorado, the World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization blame poor construction and development practices, as well as poverty in vulnerable buildings and crowded cities, which make earthquakes, river breaches, or tropical cyclone more deadly than they need be: "It's a form of suicide, isn't it? We build houses that kill ourselves (in earthquakes). We build houses in flood zones that drown ourselves."
They also highlight the importance of man-made global warming, which causes change in Earth's climate, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding.