Global report on human settlements 2007, disaster at a glance: an “act of God” or human failure?

By their scale and the sheer destruction left in their wake, some events shook entire generations and remain engrained in people’s collective memory. Bhopal, Chernobyl, Hurricanes Katrina and Mitch, the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the South Asian Earthquake: all conjure images of human suffering and environmental annihilation. What part did human failure play in these events? Could better preparedness or the sustainable management of ecosystems as life-support systems have saved thousands of lives? Each one of these events, man-made or natural, tells its own story, with lessons to be learnt from each case and carried into the future as best practice.