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I am German and had to look on Wikipedia what the consensus of the term "Naturkatastrophe" (literally "natural catastrophe") is. Wikipedia suggests a Naturkata

I am German and had to look on Wikipedia what the consensus of the term "Naturkatastrophe" (literally "natural catastrophe") is. Wikipedia suggests a Naturkatastrophe is any disaster where the destructive force is nature, regardless of the cause. There is the more specific "Umweltkatastrophe" ("ecological catastrophe") that apparently requires direct human cause. I can imagine this being a mistranslation, but personally also find these terms incredibly nitpicky.

lioeters 4y ago
Thank you for clarification. Humanity is part of nature, so I suppose technically all man-made ecological disasters are "natural". But it feels like evading responsiblity, when we've knowingly caused the disaster over years and decades. I know only a little bit of German language, but I did see this headline: Bundesumweltministerin Lemke warnt: „Hier bahnt sich eine Umweltkatastrophe an“ That seems to give a more accurate description, that we're responsible for what's happening.