Days of the Dead: Remembering victims of natural disasters

It's important to remember
This has been a rough year, all over the world. Recent posts in this space have focused on natural disasters in North America, but throughout the world, the lives of everyone who died this year because of natural disasters should matter.

Here is an updated listing of wildfires all over the world in 2017, along with the scope of their devastation, lest we forget.

I will argue that some natural disasters--such as increasingly violent storms driven by rising global temperatures, and wildfires in drought-parched regions--may have been exacerbated by human irresponsibility. But it's also important to note that humans really don't control everything. The only thing each of us can truly control is ourselves.

A review of the statistics for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria is sobering.

Storms, fires, and earthquakes have gone on since the earth began, and they'll continue till the end. How do we respond to them? While we mourn the dead, how are we responding to those they left behind? That's an open question until we answer it.

The devastation wrought by the Central Mexican earthquake of 2017 was not limited to Mexico City.

Do we respond with empathy and love? With generosity and support? With creativity and energy? Each of us gets to answer that one on our own.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Casa Bonampak, for the Days of the Dead Papel Picado banner at the top (handy place to buy them),  to Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images and CNBC for the photo of the burned-out neighborhood in northern California, to The Daily Wire and Twitter for the photo of a drowned neighborhood in Puerto Rico, and to The Wall Street Journal and Getty Images for the photo from Mexico City in September 2017. Finally, I am grateful to Inspired to Reality for the image and quote.