Some places are more prone to disaster than others. But that does it take to turn a cyclone into a disaster in one place and just a climatic event somewhere else? The main reasons are obvious enough. Economically deprived people living in shacks are more likely to suffer from any calamity. Rich countries may have more to lose financially, but they also have more resources for anticipating hazards. There are many ways of determining vulnerability,...

On 30 January 2000 a tailings dam at the Aurul Mine in Romania overflowed and released 100,000 cubic metres of effluent containing cyanide into the Tisza River. By the time the overflow was detected, the alarm raised and emergency measures taken to staunch the flow, heavily contaminated wastewater had reached the Danube River and was on its way to Hungary and beyond. Traces of cyanide, albeit at a very low level, were still detected in the rive...

The extent of ozone depletion for any given period depends on complex interaction between chemical and climatic factors such as temperature and wind. The unusually high levels of depletion in 1988, 1993 and 2002 were due to early warming of the polar stratosphere caused by air disturbances originating in mid-latitudes, rather than by major changes in the amount of reactive chlorine and bromine in the Antarctic stratosphere.