The recent forest fires in Russia, together with flooding in Pakistan and China, have dominated the world news this month. Wider climate change aside, abnormally hot and wet weather, linked to changes in the Gulf Stream and seasonal monsoons, has been identified as the root cause of these natural disasters.
However, Russia has experienced increased forest fires over a number of years, including devastating outbreaks in the far east of the country. The cause of these is largely "anthropogenic" - they are started by people - and other "human factors", including lack of strategic fire defence infrastructure, have undoubtedly exacerbated the latest catastrophic outbreaks.
Similarly in Pakistan, resources allocated for flood defence and emergency services seem to have been lost to corruption or incompetence. Additionally, there is the problem - shared with China - of development pressures associated with a growing population which inhabits areas prone to natural disasters.
In other words, these so-called "Acts of God" are very much "People Problems". Of these, it is clearly Pakistan that faces the greatest set of challenges. As well as countries such as Britain and the United States, it is to be hoped that the wider Islamic world, particularly wealthy nations in the Middle East, will come to the assistance of the people of Pakistan, and also that those nationals hitherto engaged in terrorism will now turn their energies to disaster relief.
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