For me, as an African more used to covering events on that wonderful yet challenged continent, there was an added poignancy as the developed and developing world seemed to merge into one terrible physical and human catastrophe.

CNN: Katrina: When New Orleans went from?developed world to Third World

Well I mean firstly there's this problem about all the aid agencies are worried that there's going to be a huge human catastrophe, they can't get food across there, in about two or three weeks the snow's going to fall, the passes will be blocked.

BBC: News | BREAKFAST WITH FROST | Imran Khan, Leader of the Justice Party

But Rwanda has come very far, very fast, from the lowest level of human-induced catastrophe that left it morally, socially, politically, and financially bankrupt.

FORBES: Rwanda: A Stunning Turnaround On A Continent Marked By Broken Promises

Natural catastrophe or human error?

BBC: The company behind Hungary's toxic spill

The human suffering and economic cost of this catastrophe is difficult to comprehend.

CNN: Tsunami tragedy: Your e-mails

Kurzweil's human-machine symbiosis is not a techno-catastrophe but the ultimate liberation from humanity's biological frailties.

CNN: Is AI a threat to humanity?

Brooklyn, New York (Motherboard.tv) -- In April of last year the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men, injuring 17 others and triggering what is generally recognized as one of the greatest human errors ever made and officially the largest unforeseen marine oil catastrophe since people started drilling for oil.

CNN: Robotic sailboats built to clean up oil spills

The catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf right now may prove to be a result of human error, or of corporations taking dangerous shortcuts to compromise safety, or a combination of both.

WHITEHOUSE: Moving Forward on a New Foundation