Deaths being from natural phenomena seem to just be one factor determining how strong our emotional response to disasters is, and there are plenty of others. People seem to give a greater emotional response if the deaths are flashy, unexpected, instant rather than slow (both in regards to each individual and the length of the disaster), could happen to anyone at any time, and are inversely correlated with age (people care much less if old people die and much more if children do). This would explain why 9/11, school shootings, or shark attacks have a much g...
This is wrong. 1.5 * 365 / 24 ~ 22.8 days. I think this comes from the 33 days of life every year statistic later on, which is based on sleeping 2 hours less per day.