Natural disasters on the rise: Third world countries are at highest risk for devastation. (Environment).

More than 520 natural disasters wreaked havoc worldwide during the first nine months of 2002, and the majority of these catastrophes were weather-related, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). A trend in increased rainfall, caused by global warming, is largely to blame, suggests UNEP team member Thomas Loster.

"Rain intensities reached unique values, marking all-time records. We have, once more, strong indications that global warming is increasing and thus will have serious effects on societies and economies alike," Loster says.

From January 11 to February 22, 2002, floods and landslides damaged or destroyed 100,000 houses in Indonesia and killed some 150 people. Between March and April, Ecuador's floods and landslides damaged or destroyed 1,500 kilometers of road and killed 23 people. Floods also devastated Chile, Jamaica, Nepal, Spain, France, and Germany.

Impacts from catastrophes recently reported to the United Nations include:

* Natural disasters claimed more than 9,400 lives, more than 8,000 of which were lost in Asia.

* Total economic loss from 2002's natural disasters is expected to top $70 billion.

* Europe suffered the highest economic costs ($33 billion), followed by Asia ($14.8 billion), and North America ($7.7 billion).

* Floods caused 42% of fatalities, 66% of economic losses, and 64% of insured losses.

* There were 195 natural disasters in Asia, 149 in the Americas, 99 in Europe, 45 in Australasia, and 38 in Africa.

Environmental experts say agriculture, health, water supplies, and wildlife are increasingly suffering under the growing global warming crisis. UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer recommends that industrialized nations take action to help the poorer parts of the world adapt to the increasingly unstable and extreme environments that are likely to come.

"Climate change, linked with human-made emissions, is already under way. The world is facing a rise in extreme weather events of the kind witnessed in 2002 that will impact every facet of life, including agriculture, health, water supplies, and wildlife," Toepfer says. "It will be the poorer parts of the world, the poorer people, who will suffer most because they have neither the financial or other resources to cope."

The World Meteorological Organizationis calling for special efforts to develop and improve the capabilities of national meteorological services in the least-developed countries, where existing services are constrained by limited budgets, poor infrastructure, and lack of spare parts and consumables, among other things.

Sources: United Nations Environment Program, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya. Web site www.unep.org.

World Meteorological Organization, 7bis, Avenue de la Paix, CH-1211, Geneva 2, Switzerland. Web site www.wmo.ch.

[GRAPH OMITTED]