The disasters we've seen this year make it clear that each of us should get the training we need to climb up out of the rubble and start helping ourselves until the government or the Canadian Mounties (whichever comes first) shows up to take over. The 20 hour course to become qualified as a Community Emergency Response Team member can make a life saving difference for yourself and your neighbors when the ground is yanked out from underfoot and the water starts to rise.
For starters read the Wikipedia article on CERTs and then go to the FEMA link for CERT organizations by state:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_emergency_response_team
http://www.training.fema.gov/emiweb/CERT/dir.asp
 

The Life You Save May Be Your OWN: Join a Community Emergency Response Team

800 million people go to bed hungry every night. After decades of holding steady, that number has started to increase in the last few years. The hundreds of thousands thrown into such bad circumstances by that earthquake represent less than 0.02 percent of that 800 million. They have been made obvious by the media trying to draw readership with a "newsworthy" natural disaster. Reading "the news" can throw anyone into a fit of depression. I don't let my kids watch it. When it knocks me down, I take comfort knowing the mood will pass, put the rose colored glasses back on and get back into the fight. You write well. It makes a difference.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com