Natural disasters repeatedly plunge people into hardship and misery. They destroy homes and cities, causing hunger and epidemics. In this century, around four million people have died worldwide due to earthquakes, floods, storms, and volcanic eruptions; that’s more than 40,000 deaths per year. The damage is significant. In 1993 alone, it amounted to about 50 billion dollars. But this is also a reality: According to estimates by the World Health Organization, one to two million people die from malaria each year, as many as in half a century of natural disasters. The economic damage caused by alcoholism alone in Germany is estimated by the German Central Office for Addiction Issues to be around 80 billion marks. In road traffic, around 250,000 people die worldwide each year, with more than 1,000 in Germany alone.