The extreme weather that dominated 2010 is the predicted sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about. 260,000 people died in natural disasters in 2010, compared to 15,000 in 2009. Disasters caused $222 billion in economic losses in 2010. In the United States there were 79 major disasters as of December 14 unlike the average year which has 34.
Scientists have noted that the past 200 years have been unusually mild climatically and volanically. Possibly we are now regressing toward to mean -- and mother nature can be MEAN.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 19, 2010
4:50 p.m. EST
This was the year the Earth struck back.
Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 — the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.
"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.
"The term '100-year event' really lost its meaning this year."
2010's World Gone Wild: Quakes, Floods, Blizzards
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