Monitoring Our Home Planet - Admission/Application Essay Example

This paper aims to explore the impact of three different natural phenomena that are responsible for natural disasters, and analyse how these phenomena are monitored via the internet. This paper shall specifically explore flooding, earthquakes, and famine. The earthquake hazard presents a serious risk to the safety, health, and economic viability of several regions across the globe. Recent earthquakes demonstrate the risks to modern societies from such events, affecting virtually everything from extensive loss of life, damage to infrastructure, and disruption of financial stability.

In the 20th century, earthquakes were responsible for the loss of approximately 1.87 million lives, with an average of 2,052 deaths per event between 1990 and 2010. Recent earthquakes such as the Japan earthquake of March 2011 and the Haiti earthquake in 2010 demonstrate the extent of devastation that earthquakes can cause. According to recent historical records, the Pacific Rim is the most prone geographic region that is affected by seismic activities, with approximately 81% of the world’s strongest earthquakes occurring in the region (Doocy, Daniels, Packer, Dick, & Kirsch, 2013).

Famine is a process that occurs over a period and is characterized by both manmade and natural events including drought, mismanagement, political attributes, and mismanagement. It occurs when chronic starvation leads to widespread death. Famine is a socio-economic process that results in rapid destitution of highly vulnerable and marginalized communities to an extent where the community is unable to sustain its livelihood (Jappah & Smith, 2012). The regions that are most prone to famine include arid and semi-arid regions of sub-Sahara Africa and, to a lesser extent, some parts of Asia (Lewis, 2009).

Famine disrupts the livelihoods of affected communities and leads to deaths and other health complications such as malnutrition and nutritional diseases. I also contribute to insecurity among affected