Natural Disasters

The torrent of sickening images of death and destruction in Haiti just keep on coming. Search and rescue operations have become grisly recovery operations, as the dead are removed from the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Disaster after disaster, misery heaped upon misery—drought, fires, floods, earthquakes, wars, diseases—dominate the news these days. Does it seem as if these things are growing more intense, or is it just that they are “better reported” than ever?

The age-old debate intensifies, as the “realists” disdain the “doomsayers” and the “doomsayers” point accusatory fingers at the “realists.”