This was the year the Earth struck back. Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 - the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism   attacks in the past 40 years combined. "It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010. "The term '100-year event' really lost its meaning this year." And we have ourselves to blame   most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say. Even though many disasters seem accidental, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and strange year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes. Poor construction   and development practices make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches  , or the tropical cyclone   hits, more people die. The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people, many of them living in poverty , and more poorly built shanties   as it did 25 years ago. The same quake hit Port-au-Prince in 1985 instead of 2010, total deaths would have probably been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International University.www.ks5u.com Climate scientists say Earth's climate also is changing thanks to man-made global warming, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding. The large amount of extreme weather is a clear sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about. They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave - setting a national record of 111 degrees - would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming. Previous data show that 18 countries broke their records for the hottest day ever. White House science adviser John Holdren said we should get used to climate disasters or do something about global warming: "The science is clear that we can expect more and more of these kinds of damaging events unless and until society's emissions   of heat-trapping gases and particles   are sharply reduced." Why did the writer give the example of the earthquake that happened in Haiti?
To show Port-au-Prince is too crowded. To show more people's living in vulnerable buildings can cause more people to die in an earthquake To show man's forecast ability of an earthquake reduced To show Haiti is a poor country.