Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made (or technological) hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be ostensively defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions. It is a phenomenon that can cause damage to life, property and destroy the economic, social and cultural life of people.
Disasters can have devastating consequences, affecting communities, economies, and ecosystems. They often lead to displacement, loss of livelihoods, and long-term psychological impacts on survivors. Preparedness and response strategies play a crucial role in mitigating their effects, with governments, humanitarian organizations, and local communities working together to provide relief and recovery efforts. Building resilient infrastructure, early warning systems, and disaster education programs can significantly reduce the impact of such events. While some disasters are unpredictable, proactive measures can help societies adapt and recover more effectively.
Quotes
edit- There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing that can't become a disaster.
- Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970).
- CALAMITY, n. A more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminder that the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering. Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
- Market signals were clear: There's no profit in preventing a future catastrophe.
- Noam Chomsky, in an interview with C.J. Polychroniou, Chomsky: Ventilator Shortage Exposes the Cruelty of Neoliberal Capitalism (April 1, 2020), Truthout.
- The formula for achieving a successful relationship: You should treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster.
- Quentin Crisp, Manners from Heaven: A Divine Guide to Good Behaviour (1984), chapter 7.
- The truth is, we like to talk over our disasters, because they are ours ; and others like to listen, because they are not theirs.
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara (1834), Vol. III, Chapter 34.
- Disaster is a natural part of my evolution, toward tragedy and dissolution.
- Tyler Durden, in Fight Club (1996) by Chuck Palahniuk, p. 101.
- Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster.
- Bertrand Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951), p. 132-133.
