Graph of the Day: Losses from Floods, Windstorms, and Earthquakes, 1980-2005

From the Human Impact Report, page 85:

The approach of comparing the trends in weather-related and geophysical disasters is based on an analysis of loss-generating events in the publication Journal of Flood Risk. The article states that by “Assuming the socio-economic driving factors behind loss-generating events to be the same for all causes, the difference is likely to be due to climate change”. The validity of the approach has been reviewed with a number of experts. While it is a rough approach, particularly on shorter time series, it is seen as comparatively strong. Alternative analyses of number of affected, recorded losses of property and insured losses are associated with greater uncertainty than the frequency of events. …

The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis