Are natural disasters increasing?

Because we have mentioned the belief that the frequency of natural disasters have increased over the last years in our class discussions, I did some research and found some articles that discuss this opinion and that provide more information of these events. 

The constant media-reports about natural disasters seem to be telling us that the Earth has gotten more active and dangerous over the last several years. However, can we really assume that natural disasters have been increasing?

The US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) along with the Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) have been reporting different natural phenomenas, categorizing them as natural disasters when more than ten people die or 100 people are injured, homeless, displaced or evacuated. According to this definition, natural disasters have increased its quantity from 78 in 1970 to 384 in 2004. However, Guha-Sapir, director of CRED, claims that many of these numbers are artificial. Guha-Sapir says that “like in medicine, if you go out into a village and look for cases, you find much more than if you just sit back and let people come to you when they're sick." The growth in media reports, along with advanced communications about natural disasters, the creation of different institutions, and studies about them have made the numbers mentioned in the study appear greater than they really are. 

On the other hand, estimations and studies tell us that two thirds of those numbers between 1970 and now are real, and also, that the hydro-meteorological disasters, such as droughts, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons and floods have increased over the past years. Thus, there is a growth in natural disasters even though they are in a smaller proportion than the studies suggested. What is the cause to this increase in hydro-meteorological disasters? It is a combination of natural and man-made factors. People in the last years have increased the likelihood of being affected by natural disasters because of unsafe urbanization or more exposure to risky areas. Klaus Jacob, a research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory explains human-worsened disasters by stating that “as you put more and more people in harms way, you make a disaster out of something that before was just a natural event.”

To better understand why we hear more about natural disasters now than in the past we must acknowledge the combination of different factors: the increasing media coverage, the growth of studies analyzing natural disasters, natural factors as global warming, and the human factor, which places humans to be exposed to more natural disasters. 

These are the links to the articles that I used:

https://disinfo.com/2013/11/examining-natural-disasters/

http://www.livescience.com/414-scientists-natural-disasters-common.html

http://www.inpe.br/crs/geodesastres/conteudo/livros/CRED_2004_Thirty_years_natural_disaster_1974-2003.pdf