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What Actually Caused the Nepal Disaster

Roger Pielke Jr. · 29 Aug 2026

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Roger Pielke Jr. did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    A precipitating event is necessary but not sufficient for a disaster to result.

    Their wordsA precipitating event - a hurricane, an earthquake, or a glacial/rock collapse - is necessary for a disaster to result, but that event is never sufficient.

  2. Our reading

    Human exposure and vulnerability are necessary elements of a disaster and are often the most effective factors to influence in the near term.

    Their wordsHuman exposure and vulnerability are also necessary elements, and almost always the ones that we can most effectively influence in the very near term.

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