February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The beginning of the new is the end of the old. Nature is not concerned with our calendars, holidays, festivals or holy days. It does not pause while we make merry or pledge resolutions for the year ahead. It merely proceeds on its course.
And we have seen that in the fullest measure this week.
The force released by the 9.0 earthquake in the waters off the coast of Sumatra has been compared to the blast from a million atomic bombs. Scientists say our planet literally wobbled in its rotation.
Such an event is beyond normal imagination. But the results on the surface were all too evident.
The death toll from the tsunamis that struck coastlines from Thailand to the east coast of Africa is edging upward by the hour. Within 48 hours it had already matched the 40,000 death toll of the famous Krakatoa volcanic eruption of 1883. soon after it exceeded 50,000. There is fear that as many as 100,000 may ultimately perish at the hands of disease.
Death on this scale, in places so far apart, yet virtually simultaneously, is mind boggling. It is also a stark reminder of the dangers of our natural world and the fragility of all life inhabiting it.
What made this disaster worse was the fact that early warning of tsunamis is technologically possible but that the countries struck by the waves did not possess the necessary devices.
Some governments claimed they could not afford them. That is nonsense. With just a few minutes’ warning, thousands of people now dead would have been given the chance of survival. But for these lost souls it might as well have been 1883 and Krakatoa all over again.
Of course, out of the rubble and the chaos we will once again see the better side of humanity. Helping hands will span the globe and aid will flow in from all quarters. But we also know that within days the news from the disaster areas will slow to a trickle and that events elsewhere will dominate our thoughts.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. The news cycle is a bit like nature: it isn’t personal; it, too, proceeds on its course.
But it should be possible to learn something from this week’s tragedy that we can carry with us into the new year and beyond. It is the idea, oft repeated but commonly forgotten or ignored, that we share one home and one home alone. Our planet is small, our environment vulnerable.
The growing population of our world means that there are simply more people standing in the way of furious nature.
We will never put an end to death from natural events. But we can take steps globally to reduce the toll over time.
Quite clearly, if humanity has learned anything from this last week of 2004, it is that we need to make some serious resolutions about how we interact with our world, not just for 2005 but for all the years after that. Our trembling blue sphere requires nothing less.