In a recent episode of the morning talk show El Despertador on Channel 9, Chilean geographer Marcelo Lagos and US meteorologist John Morales emphasized that natural phenomena are not responsible for human disasters and tragedies. Instead, they explained that these events are more often the direct result of poor human decisions in planning, education, and prevention.
The experts agreed that prevention, education, and proper planning are the only truly effective tools to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events, which will continue to be a frequent and significant part of life on our planet.
“Talking about natural disasters or natural risks is almost archaic,” Lagos stated. He explained that blaming nature is a way of shirking responsibility, noting that “it’s evidently a political way of shifting blame onto nature and externalizing responsibility.”
Lagos stressed that “disasters and risk are entirely constructed by human actions, decisions, or rather, inaction”. He argued that if, for example, 70% of a city is informally built, it reveals a fundamental structural problem. “If the tsunami destroys the school, it’s not because the tsunami wants to destroy the school; someone built it on the coastline, and therefore the tsunami will flood it.”
Meanwhile, as the Hurricane Season has officially begun on 1 June 2025, the local weather institute (Indomet) reports on the impact of a dense passing cloud of Saharan Dust. The dust is good for agriculture, but impacts human health, with those suffering from allergies needing to take special care.
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2 June 2025