Natural disasters 'killed 295,000 in 2010'

Man-made and natural disasters generated worldwide economic losses of 222 billion dollars in 2010, more than three times last year's figure, the world's biggest reinsurer Swiss Re estimated on Tuesday.This year's major catastrophes claimed 260,000 lives, most of them in the deadly Haiti earthquake during which over 222,000 people were killed.Other disasters with high casualty rate included Russia's heatwave which left about 15,000 dead and summer floods in China and Pakistan which killed 6,225, said Swiss Re.

Man-made and natural disasters generated worldwide economic losses of 222 billion dollars in 2010, more than three times last year's figure, the world's biggest reinsurer Swiss Re estimated on Tuesday.This year's major catastrophes claimed 260,000 lives, most of them in the deadly Haiti earthquake during which over 222,000 people were killed.Other disasters with high casualty rate included Russia's heatwave which left about 15,000 dead and summer floods in China and Pakistan which killed 6,225, said Swiss Re.

Submitted by Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com Natural Disasters Cost The World $160 Billion In 2012 The world’s largest reinsurance firm, Munich Re, has stated that Natural Disasters alone have cost the world $160 billion in 2012.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America set an off-the-charts heat record in 2012. A brutal combination of a widespread drought and a mostly absent winter pushed the average annual U.S. temperature last year up to 55.32 degrees Fahrenheit, the government announced Tuesday. That's a full degree warmer than the old record set in 1998.

By Ilan Noy Today, we're fortunate to have Ilan Noy, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Hawai'i, as a Guest Contributor. In the last 14 months, we have seen a spate of very large earthquakes which began with the unprecedented devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti (1/10/10) -- the most destructive natural disaster in modern history (relative to national population), continued with the unusually strong earthquake in Chile (2/27/10), to the most recent events generated by the earthquake in

We've made it through a year of relatively few natural disasters, German re-insurer Munich Re said Tuesday, but climate change is still a threat and the failed Copenhagen summit ensures costs will rise in the future.Munich Re said natural catastrophes took many fewer lives and caused much less damage on average in 2009 than in the previous decade.In an annual look at the cost of natural disasters, the re-insurance giant said: "Losses were far lower in 2009 than in 2008 due to the absence on the whole of major catastrophes and a very benign North Atlantic hurricane season."

After Don Cherry on Monday questioned the merit of Canadian aid to Haiti, Canada’s aid agency outlined the successes of its $1-billion in assistance since 2006 but at the same time defended its decision to review long-term aid for the Caribbean nation saying Ottawa’s funding “will not be a blank cheque.”