Talk:Hazard

Conversion from disambiguation

I have now turned this page from being half article, half disambiguation in to entirely article. It still needs expansion, but i think it's a good base to start from. All the previous dab content can now be found at Hazard (disambiguation). Any comments welcome Owain.davies 05:44, 9 May 2007 (UTC) /.m.>?>?>Lk;#][o#hopholkjjlklllkloil;p'[=#]

ioupp;o' [=9-#=  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.82.200.31 (talk) 14:43, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

I have been following the little drama presented this past couple of days in the contributions and reversions of an attempted third classification of hazard. It appears that the (two?) contributor(s) had in mind utterly preventable catastophes which result from ignoring the obvious danger at hand and/or the clear warnings of what will happen if the clear warning is ignored. Figures of speech which occured to me are "an outraged Nature rebelled against the assault", "the fruits of their own arrogance came down upon them with a vengeance", "they brought this upon themselves".

Examples that come to mind immediately are the sinking of the Titanic and the loss of so many lives in spite of the warnings of experts, slumlords failing to spend money to eliminate "firetraps", the AIDS epidemic (preventable with abstinence from promiscuous sexual encounters and avoidance of illegal drug use), the Exxon Valdez disaster and the current gulf spill, the refusal of totalitarian regimes to distribute food and medical supplies to the people they dominate, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1930's Germany and the failure to use abundant opportunities to stop them before the annexation of Czechoslovakia followed later by the invasion of Poland--classic examples from history are the Deluge, the sinking of Atlantis, the plagues of Egypt, the burial of Herculaneum and Pompeii, the Crusades, the Black Death, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, which have been historically attributed to Divine Retribution for presumptuous corruption and evil in human culture.

The reader may not agree with the assessments of various cultures past and present that presumptious arrogance of the individual, or of business leaders, or of governments, actively provoked "Divine Judgment", but the results of human arrogance even without adverting to the existence of God or of the gods is a real hazard as history has neutrally reported. What has been called the Wrath of God and Punishment for Sin has always manifested itself physically, in nature and in society (Conquest, Tyranny, Oppression, Socio-Economic Meltdown, Bloodshed, Famine, Plague, Volcano, Earthquake, Flood, Violent Storms, Wild Beasts, Insect Devastation, Blindness, Deafness, Accidental Mutilation, Incurable Long-Term Disease, Madness, Death). What has been called "Defiance of God" has traditionally been fraught with grave peril--"You do so at your own risk!" The first two kinds of "Causes..." set forth in this article (Natural, and Human Mismanagement) do not include this danger (denial? "blind spot"?). I rather suspect that this is what was on the mind of the contributor(s). But this is as far as I myself am willing to enter the argument. I hope this has been useful. Hermitstudy (talk) 19:17, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Not even slightly. • • • Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 16:58, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

New Article: Hazard (risk)

I have created a new article Hazard (risk) that is geared more towards risk assessment. I would not oppose (and would support) merging it with the current Hazard page. I would, however, like a fresh perspective during merging. 570vca (talk) 14:58, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Update: this seems to have been merged. EMsmile (talk) 09:47, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

Scope

The topic is "Hazard". The content includes material on risk, risk assessment, disaster, disaster management and quite a lot of listings and discussions of specific hazards and responsible organisations which would better fit into articles such as biological hazard, chemical hazard etc. This article should focus on the concepts and only provide summary sections and links to main articles on the associated concepts. I intend to do some work in this direction. • • • Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 16:56, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

Kindly include and elaborate about Plant pathogens

Plant pathogens can spread and destroy food crops or can destroy vegetation and biodiversity or can detereorate stored foodgrains. Some plant pathogens and even plant beneficial microbes can make the plant toxic to human and cattle, such as some ergots. Some plant pathogens can cross infect human or cattle, such as Aspergillus spores. So I request to elaborate on plant pathogens 2409:4060:2017:F88E:A5E0:8244:A65:A7F2 (talk) 11:42, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Changing the section on "disaster"

I propose to move the content that is currently in the section on "disaster" to disaster and then replace this with an excerpt, and briefly explain what it different between hazard and disaster. Note this explanation is already given at natural hazard to differentiate natural hazard from natural disaster. EMsmile (talk) 21:54, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

I've shortened the content that was under disaster a bit and brought in some info about terminology from natural disaster. I wonder if the last paragraph in that section should also be moved, deleted or condensed. EMsmile (talk) 11:55, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Merge anthropogenic hazard to here?

I wonder if we should merge anthropogenic hazard to here. I see quite a lot of overlap. For example that whole section on hazards from transportation in anthropogenic hazard would also fit here under the section of "safety hazards". Is it perhaps an arbitrary split to speak of natural hazards versus anthropogenic hazards? Note that the article on natural hazard has been merged into natural disaster recently. EMsmile (talk) 14:23, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Removed text block about flood management

I've removed this text block because it's overly detailed, U.S. centric and outdated:

+++++

Recent policy-oriented work into hazard management began with the work of Gilbert White, the first person to study engineering schemes as a means of mitigating flooding in the US. From 1935 to 1967 White and his colleagues led the research into flood defences, and further collaboration on the investigation was undertaken at the University of Chicago.

In December 1989, after several years of preparation, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 44/236 proclaiming the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. The objective of that decade was stated in the annexe of Resolution 44/236 as follows:

"…to reduce through concerted international action, especially in developing countries, the loss of life, property damage, and social and economic disruption caused by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, wind-storms, tsunamis, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, wildfire, grasshopper and locust infestations, drought and desertification and other calamities of natural origin."

Methods to reduce risk from natural hazards include construction of high-risk facilities away from areas with high risk, engineering redundancy, emergency reserve funds, purchasing relevant insurance, and the development of operational recovery plans. EMsmile (talk) 15:07, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

References

EMsmile (talk) 15:07, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Merged anthropogenic hazard

Some work done and to-dos:

• I've just merged the article on "anthropogenic hazard" into here. I've also added some content from the UNDRR website: https://www.preventionweb.net/terminology/hazard. User:Richarit, please check.
• I find this article still quite difficult as those different "hazard types" actually overlap so much. For example, content that is under "chemical hazard" could equally be under "environmental hazard" and vice versa. There might still be some scope for trimming there.
• The article is weak on content about how hazards are managed and assessed. We only have a short section on "Analysis and management" so far. I know we have sub-articles for that but we should provide some kind of overview. EMsmile (talk) 10:50, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

Evaluation

This article is clear and it explains hazards in different contexts. L77T (talk) 01:39, 1 February 2026 (UTC)