Global warming is resulting in more damaging events more often than ever. This is more apparent from recent damaging floods that destroyed lives and properties in Colorado, landslides in Washington State in the U.S. to other parts of the world. Swiss Re, a world behemoth in issuing re-insurance policies recently published a report spelling out more vulnerable cities prone to natural disasters. These cities are home to more than quarter of the world population. The list includes cities that have the ability to cause more human lives from earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, and storm surge.

According to the report, major cities that can destroy more human lives include Tokyo, Manila, the Pearl River Delta cities including Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Jakarta, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. A natural disaster in these cities affects number of workdays due to breakdown of transportation networks and damage to other infrastructure, and could affect many lives.

In regard to earthquakes and subsequent tsunami, floods and other events the so called “Ring of Fire,” the coastal areas of Asia is more vulnerable than any other area in the world. Floods can destroy many parts of cities of Paris and Rotterdam, major nerve centers of the European economy.