The death toll in the devastating earthquake in China has just recently reached 10,000; that’s almost 4 times as many fatalities recorded from Hurricane Katrina. There’s already been 11 shark attacks in Volusia County, Florida just this year, and it’s not even summer yet. Not to mention the recent shark attack fatalities in Solana Beach, CA and Mexico (the death in Mexico has spawned a mass shark hunt as well. Check out all the cruel details here: Shark Slaughter). Oil recently jumped over $126/barrel, undoubtedly another record high. Are you getting the picture?

Things seem a little chaotic right now in our world, don’t they? Well, at first look it may seem that way. But we must keep in mind the ridiculous ease of information transfer throughout the entire globe. Prime example: I’m sitting in my house in California writing this, a distant 3,000 miles away from my beloved homeland of New Jersey. And every time there’s a good swell at home I’m sure to see pictures and hear stories via e-mails, instant messages, and of course, Localswell.com.

The world has become almost completely equipped to contact any corner of it at the click of a mouse. This in turn has created a network where information is being passed from one end of the globe to the other instantaneously, causing every hiccup and fart made in Siberia to be known by someone at a remote distance. - or something to that affect, you get what I’m trying to say.

With all this death and chaos we’re hearing of it seems like the world is gradually slipping into an apocalyptic prophecy from some book written by ‘those guided by god’ (that’s a different topic for a different time). But is our society coming closer to this end of ends, or are we just completely inundated with these disasters and tragic events because of the network of information we have created?

I was recently working on an article discussing Dr. Gray’s hurricane predictions for the upcoming season. I also decided to do some research on the most destructive and deadly hurricanes ever. I came across some very interesting information. And I am not in any way trying to belittle the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina or any of the victims or people having to deal with the destruction, I’m merely pointing out the facts. Hurricane Katrina was only the third deadliest hurricane to date, as well as third most powerful storm when making landfall (check out the numbers for yourself: Deadliest and Costliest Hurricanes).

I also found out that hurricane seasons go through phases, and in the report there is an evaluation of two 50-year periods in which storms that made landfall are recognized. The report shows that from 1900-1949 189 named storms, 101 hurricanes, and 39 major hurricanes made landfall. Compare this with the last 50 years (1958-2007) of 165 named storms, 82 hurricanes, and 33 major hurricanes making landfall. The last 50 years has also seen an increase in global surface temperature of .4° Celsius, showing that even though the surface temperature is rising, there are past eras when hurricane activity has been higher. The report acknowledges changes in ocean salinity, as well as favorable upper air-steering currents as the major reasons for the unusually high tropical activity of 2004 and 2005. So why all the hysteria of ‘global warming causing more hurricanes,’ and ‘natural disasters are more out of control than ever?’ And don’t let us forget disasters in the old times, like the Black Plague; that’s estimated to have killed 75 million people, but there wasn’t endless media coverage of it along with complete and total availability of information then.

My point in all this is that we can’t forget to put things in perspective and we can’t be naïve about what happens in our world. Some things are just unavoidable and natural occurrences. The world is not coming to an end, global warming isn’t causing excessive storm activity, and sharks are not going to take a bite of every surfer out there. So a few attacks happened in a cluster, just like it’s possible for one to roll craps ten times straight. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s still possible. Don’t get hung up worrying about some terrible end while you’ve got this whole thing called life waiting for you to take hold of it and explore.