Is Mother Nature Striking Back?

Okay, here's my question. We've all heard about the tsunami in Asia, the earthquakes they've had in the east, hurricane Katrina & Rita, and the global warming that’s been happening recently. The question is is mother nature striking back? With all the pollution from vehicle, wasted electricity, wasted water, all the garbage being buried in dumps, the oil spills, the deforestation, among other things. With this "abuse" is mother nature finally staking back? It's like if you keep hitting someone long enough they'll eventually hit ya back. Where I'm from we are getting some "global warming". Check this out, I live in Canada and where I live we barely got snow through a lot of December and January and part of February. There were a lot of warm days this winter. Who woulda thought, not much snow in Canada (the part I live in at least) . So, what do you think about this? Is Mother Nature striking back?

[edit on 16-3-2006 by The_Truth_Seeker]

We are fairly rapidly killing this planet. It is a dumping ground from our overt consumption. However, I firmly believe that Ivan ,Katrina, Rita and Wilma were all manipulated or engineered max intensity storms. I am a Floridian who lives within two miles of the Gulf. I will be in New Hampshire this year from Aug 21st - September 15th. When the Gulf is at 90 degrees for weeks on end, things seem to get real dicey around here.

There is not any significant increase in the number or intensity of natural events -- compared to the historical record.

There is an increase compared to recent decades, but the twentieth century, particularly the latter half of the 20th century, was relatively quiet and benign compared to centuries past. Earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, floods, etc were much more common previously than what contemporary people are used to. It only appears to be increasing. People just have a skewed basis for comparison.

As to deforestation -- forest cover is increasing throughout most of the industrialized world, not decreasing. The forest loss is occuring in lesser and undeveloped countries. The single biggest use of forest products worldwide, at over 50% of wood consumption, is subsistence heating and cooking. That is the cause of net global forest loss, not modern forest management.

Originally posted by dave_54
There is an increase compared to recent decades, but the twentieth century, particularly the latter half of the 20th century, was relatively quiet and benign compared to centuries past. Earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, floods, etc were much more common previously than what contemporary people are used to. It only appears to be increasing. People just have a skewed basis for comparison.

Hot decade
The ten warmest years on record have all been since 1990. Six of the ten warmest years on record in the UK were between 1995 and 2004.In Europe, the August 2003 heatwave was probably the hottest for at least 500 years.During August 2003, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK was taken in Brogdale in Kent. It was 38.5°C.Between 4 and 13 August 2003, over 2,000 people in the UK died as a result of the heat.

Source