Vulnerability to disasters quantified

According to WorldRiskReport 2012, compiled by the UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) launched two days before the the International Day for Disaster Reduction (13 October), "the risk of any given country depends on the economic, social and institutional conditions of its society. The report ranks the risk of 173 countries based on an index that quantifies structural susceptibility, coping capacity and adaptation capacity along with exposure to natural hazards," reports New Europe.

“The new (report) gives us a vivid picture of how environmental destruction on a global scale is increasingly becoming a direct threat to human beings,” said Peter Mucke, director of Alliance Development Works, which contributed to the report. “Where slopes have been deforested, where protective reefs, mangroves and wetlands have degenerated or even completely disappeared, the forces of nature impact with far higher force on inhabited areas.”