After the Katrina disaster, I read on a blog somewhere (here, perhaps?) that we don't really have natural disasters anymore, because human ability to foresee and prevent their worst effects is now so great. When those effects are NOT prevented, it's more human stupidity than natural disaster, which only makes it even more painful.
Examples of human contributing factors:
New Orleans: poor wetlands environmental policies, inadequate levees.
Indian Ocean Tsunami: no seismic early warning system despite obvious need for one.
Bam (Iran) and Kashmir earthquakes: tens of thousands dead due to home construction methods. Simple reinforcement of construction with canes (bamboo, Arundo, Phragmites, whatever is available), allows collapse of the structures to be reduced, and much less lethal. (See Quake-proof adobe construction in Peru.) No information programs on building techniques ever instituted.
Stan & Mitch, Central American landslides, Haitian mudslides and flooding: deforestation.
desertification of the Sahel: . . . .
Anyway, you get the idea.
As for what the reaction will be, history suggests it won't be good. People procrastinate on all the "effort" and "expense" of real solutions. We've gone through that stage already. Then when the real problems and expenses hit, the usual solution is to try to rip off someone else. (The US has started on that one in Iraq.) Before you know it, flood, fire, famine, and war are galloping all over the planet.
The only hope, perhaps, is if the US gets its nose well bloodied in Iraq, maybe people generally will think a bit before trying the bully route. And then, MAYBE, they'll say, "Hey, don't look now, but I think there's a real solution just *staring* at us."
We have to hope. |
