JRI is pleased to announce the publication of Briefing Paper number 47, ‘Natural Disasters and Human Responsibility’ by JRI Vice President Professor Robert White. The Briefing Paper is an adaptation of Faraday Paper number 25. The paper opens with the author’s summary:
So-called ‘natural disasters’ such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions affect huge numbers of people every year. Yet these very processes make the Earth a fertile, habitable place. It is almost always human actions, or lack of action, that turn natural hazards into disasters. Those in low-income countries, the poor and the marginalised, suffer most and are the least able to rebuild after disasters. A Christian perspective recognises the reality of the brokenness of this world caused by human sinfulness, coupled with the certain hope of a new creation where there will be no more disasters and where all creation will reflect God’s glory.
(Photo: US Navy –Wikimedia)
The Briefing Paper contains a number of high-quality images which makes for a larger sized file (pdf, 2.2mb) to download, from this link. A compressed file version (pdf, 850kb) with reduced image quality, is available from this link.