All numbers are approximations taken from various sources and refer to worldwide deaths.
10. Terrorism
Deaths per Day : 3
Everyone has a cause, most of us just do not know it, but if you push the right buttons, all of us will do something that someone else deems despicable even if we see that action as justified. Unfortunately, some people have causes that stem from a warped sense of rights. There are powerful people in this world that have three things that make for a dangerous combination. First, they believe they have a right to rule. These people crave power and the more they get, the more they crave. Second, these people are leaders. It comes naturally to them. People follow them and they lead them down a sick path, often using a belief in a higher power or purpose to manipulate them into killing other people. Third, they are ruthless and have no sense of right or wrong. They do not care for the rights of others to live and to do so as they see fit. Enter terrorism; the act of murder falsely justified by a warped cause.
9. Animal Attacks
Deaths per Day : 17
Human beings are the only living thing that is not needed for the survival of life. Everything else, like the animals, plants, and even insects are part of a food chain designed to sustain a balance of life. There is only so much room on this planet. While our population explodes, we need more of it and we expand our territories. As we expand, the animals fight for what is their home. They give ground willingly enough but soon, there is just no more ground to give. Every day someone is killed either by an animal somewhere in the world with no more room to give or by an animal that we probably have no business trying to domesticate. As long as we continue to venture into the wild, they will continue to do what comes natural to them, survive.
8. Wars
Deaths per Day : 480
Wars are what happen when a group of people with a cause tries to force another group of people with opposing views to adapt to that cause by use of force. The war occurs when the second group tires of backing down or looking the other way. War is the nature of man standing up for his view of his rights. There will always be wars because there will always be opposing views. War is economically profitable. Everyone has the right to live. When you have a group of people who cannot survive due to location or lack of technology and another group that does not feel responsible for helping them, you will have a war for survival, victor keeping the spoils. War is also the taking of land to expand a way of life of a people who have outgrown their land. War is a minority of people fighting for a belief within its own body of people, as in civil unrest. War is war and it will always be here.
7. Natural Disasters
Deaths per Day : 618
The planet Earth is a violent place. It does not ask us to live here nor does it ask us to leave, it merely demands that we live here according to its rules. The Earth evolves. It changes its landscape on a continuous, non-stop basis. To Earth, it changes steadily while our perception of time sees these changes as occurrences over a period of time. What the Earth would deem as a process; we see it as random natural disaster. We have an earthquake here, a hurricane there and people die. Lightning strikes alone kill as many as 2,700 people per year and that number will grow with our population and Earth's inevitable climate changes. As we continue to grow technologically, we have hope of decreasing the number of deaths by foreknowledge of an event; however, we will never be able to escape some death due to natural disaster. For now, all we can do is hope that we get lucky enough to be somewhere else when they "occur" and avoid the destructive changes the Earth is constantly experiencing.
6. Murder and Executions
Deaths per Day : 1520
People executed every Day : 5
I have quite often heard people say that our times are getting worse and worse as far as murder and death are concerned. They hear about it on the news or experience it close to them and talk about how bad it is becoming within our people. As a student of history, I can tell you that it has always been this way. Murder was as bad then as it is now with the only difference being that there are more of us now so it seems to occur more often. Murder is as old as humanity. When the first man and woman became more than two, the possibility of murder entered into the picture. We take the process further by murdering the murderers. While executions may slow it down by taking the life of a murderer before he can kill more people, there is nothing we can do to stop murder. As long as there are different people, different religion, and emotions, there will be murder. Fortunately, the people who would not murder unless driven to it by survival far outnumber those that would do it with much less reason.
5. Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
Deaths per Day : 2055
Ethnic cleansing is the attempt to rid a particular tract of claimed land of a particular ethnic race or peoples. This includes forcing them to leave and making their lives so miserable as to make them want to leave through persecution, violence, rape, and withholding of food and water. Ethnic cleansing is the fastest road to genocide. It always leads to genocide. Genocide is the murder of a particular ethnic group to rid the land or chosen area of its kind. This is the worst kind of murder as it targets a race and does not distinguish between man, woman, or child in its hatred.
4. Poisoning
Deaths per Day : 2630
Death by poison is not a great way to go and is, in fact, high on my "to avoid" list. There are more ways to poison or be poisoned than you can shake a good stick at. Almost everything on this planet is poison if taken in the correct dosage. I just learned recently that you could drink too much water and poison your system by overdosing on it. Many poisonings occur when people take something in too large of a quantity that is supposed to help them. There are more species of poisonous plants on the planet then there are edible plants. Insects and animals also contain poison. There are many manufactured poisons and through the advancement of chemical science, there is more every day. (By the thousands) These are given to us courtesy of the pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs that treat disease. All of the reasons given above is why poisoning is the number 4 killer on our list. Addiction is not limited to illegal drugs anymore as your average citizen becomes hooked on prescription painkillers. Forms of opiate drugs are now the main cause of poisoning in the world. Drugs like heroin, cocaine, and now oxycontin are killing people in droves while city alleys and parks are filled with attics waiting their turns to die. Poison has been used as a method of murder since the beginning of the race and it is only becoming easier as we progress.
3. Suicide
Deaths per Day : 3425
As if there were not enough ways to die in this world, many people take their own lives. Despair is a leading cause of why most people end their lives. If people, as a species and as individuals do not feel that they have something to live for, they do not see any reason to continue to live. There have been religious leaders that have led their congregations to commit mass suicides, taking their lives for irrational beliefs in the name of religion. There is also a startling and growing number of teenagers killing themselves every year as their existence seems unbearable to them. Many people see the world and all of its despair and are just too sensitive to it. Love is also a reason often cited by people who have taken their life and left a reason. Suicide is such a waste of life and science is working hard on finding the causes, as our precariously balanced chemical make-up is very often suspect in suicide.
2. Accidents
Deaths per Day : 6014
Deaths by Car Accidents : 900,000
Deaths by Falling : 130,000
There are more accidental deaths than almost any other way to die. Accidents occur in so many ways it is impossible to list. While many are simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like walking on the sidewalk when someone drops a piano out of a window, just as many can be avoided through caution and being self aware. An accident can happen to anyone at any time in any place. You can be lying in your bed, safe and sound, dreaming of pleasant little things when the airline pilot accidentally dumps his fuel and lands on your house. While the odds are against it, it could happen, as that is the nature of the accident. A large number of accidents occur while driving and while many of these are more neglect than anything else, they are still called accidents. People with a cup half-empty attitude believe that life is an accident waiting to happen.
1. Diseases and Epidemic
Deaths per Day : 115,000
Deaths per Hour : 4000
When you consider the ages, disease and epidemics cause more deaths than all other kind of deaths combined. As we advanced through the industrial evolution, we created more disease by polluting the air and contaminating the water. Insect and rats carry disease and start epidemics. Our waste carries disease; our decomposing bodies are breeding grounds for it. Humanity is not alone in its susceptibility to disease as many animals have diseases that are either deadly only to them or can jump species and kill at random. There are living organisms, which is what diseases are in their basic form, that by themselves pose no threat but combined become lethal. Some people subscribe to the concept that disease is one of nature's forms of natural selection, deciding who stays and who needs to go. If this is true, humankind is the only species on the planet that has the ability to prevent his total annihilation outside of naturally evolving immunity.
Source : thelistcafe.com
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