Relative size matters.

• Author: Eble, Karen
• Position: FROM READERS - Letter to the Editor

In an otherwise interesting article ["A New Paradigm for Human Security," January/February 2005], Gregory Foster presents statistics that actually undermine its premise. He compares deaths from terrorist attacks over a 37-year period with deaths from natural disasters over a 100-year period. Since he doesn't use the same time period, we wonder why. Averages are tricky things. But generally an average means that numbers fluctuate around the average without a clear trend. That being the case, we assume over the last 100 years that about 243,000 people died each year of natural causes. As a percentage of world population, 243,000 was a far greater percentage 100 years ago than it is now. Ergo, things are getting better with regard to natural disasters, not worse. Supporting his premise would have meant presenting data showing the death...