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edesignuk

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Mar 25, 2002
19,232
2
London, England
The past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters, one of the world's biggest re-insurance companies has said.

Munich Re said the impact of the disasters was greater than in 2007 in both human and economic terms.

...

More than 220,000 people died in events like cyclones, earthquakes and flooding, the most since 2004, the year of the Asian tsunami.

Meanwhile, overall global losses totalled about $200bn (£137bn), with uninsured losses totalling $45bn, about 50% more than in 2007.

This makes 2008 the third most expensive year on record, after 1995, when the Kobe earthquake struck Japan, and 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina in the US.
BBC.

:eek:
 

Jaffa Cake

macrumors Core
Aug 1, 2004
19,801
9
The City of Culture, Englandshire
I was woken up by an earthquake early last year. I then went back to sleep.

As this has never happened to me before, I'm in total agreement with Munich Re's assessment that 2008 was a particularly bad year for this sort of thing. Given that climate change is mooted as a possible cause, if I recycle my carrier bags and don't print out unnecessary emails will it stop this happening again?
 
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