The earthquake in Pakistan was really hard for me to wrap my head around. I mean, I’ve lived with earthquakes my entire life, and I’ve lived through some really huge and terrifying ones, but nothing that even begins to approach the magnitude (pardon the pun) of the Pakistan quake earlier this month. Coming on the heels of Katrina and Rita, I have to admit that I was suffering from a major case of tragedy overload, and I didn’t really know what to say or do about it.
Just now, I read a story at Yahoo! News about natural disasters that brought the catastrophic enormity of the disaster into sharp, horrifying focus.
Of the estimated 61,000 people who have died this year due to natural
disasters, about 50,000 (according to today’s estimate) were victims of
the 7.6 earthquake that struck Pakistan Oct. 7. In 2004, by contrast, more than 60 percent of the total natural disaster deaths were caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
The whole story talks about how it’s not Mother Nature who is changing, as much as we who scurry about the planet are.
"Earth might seem
like a more active and dangerous place than ever, given the constant
media reports of multiple natural disasters recently. But a broader
view reveals that it’s not Mother Nature who’s changed, but we humans." It goes on to say "Drawn by undeveloped land and fertile soil, people are flocking to disaster-prone regions.
This creates a situation in which ordinary events like earthquakes
and hurricanes become increasingly elevated to the level of natural
disasters that reap heavy losses in human life and property."
Environmentalists have been succesfully demonized by the Right Wing Noise Machine, and some of the loonies out there don’t exactly help the cause, but we’ve only got one planet to live on right now, and it’s clear that we who scurry about on her surface are having an impact on how well she handles us. It’s something to think about, at least.
This diary at DailyKos has a fantastic list of organizations who can provide relief to the people in Pakistan who desperately need it right now. If you can help out, please do.
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Have you seen any of the Evangelicals who are preaching that this is the End Times and Armageddon is night?
I think we’re being judged, but not by a higher power of some sort. I think we have tinkered and tampered so much that the environment is “fighting back” the only way it can…
Yeah, I have seen that.
I think those people can go Cheney themselves.
When I was a kid an itinerate preacher, who spoke at our church from time to time, had everyone convinced that the world would end September 23, 1988. I sold my stamp collection and got high on video games and twizzle sticks.
“Drawn by undeveloped land and fertile soil, people are flocking to disaster-prone regions.”
Uh… yeah, there’s probably a good reason it’s undeveloped despite being fertile… Maybe we shoulda left it that way…
There have been stronger Earthquakes ’round here and, yet, we’ve been relatively unscathed (a bit of bay bridge fell down, some houses decided they wanted to try walking barefoot without their foundations on, a few people died, but not like this one). Reason being that it’s a much poorer part of the world (California is a pretty damn rich state, considering). Their buildings are built like shit… (well… ok, not quite like shit, I’ve yet to hear of shit falling over in an Earthquake, though I suppose it could liquify…), if the more experienced and richer countries would stop trying to pummel poorer ones into submission and instead used that money to help them build better buildings we might kill two birds with one stone (er… house two birds with one bird house?). We’d reduce the reasons terrorists want to… terrorize, and we’d help save lives…
Anyway… my two cents… maybe four cents… let’s make it an even nickel…
Please make sure that the Hollywood elite see this blog and maybe they’ll stop building multi-million dollar homes along shorelines (Malibu, New England, etc.) that adds to the erosion and pollution, and show this to the officials of New Orleans who want to re-build a city that’s below sea level, and show this to the oil companies who build refineries and receiving points on the Gulf where you can always count on hurricanes. The human race is comprised of 90% lemmings. We’re chasing idiotic dreams and God help the hindmost.
Amazing numbers. It truly does put things in perspective.
It is interesting how unintelligent our race of intelligent beings has become. Not only do we settle disaster-prone lands, but we propogate the problem – OVERUSE! OVERCONSUME! The glutton known obstensibly as humanity seems to be more and more willing to put and keep its members in danger just to stretch the all-nourishing dollar. Now I am not blaming the people and I can’t lay all the blame on current governments, past governments are equally to blame. (I mean, the problem didn’t spring up in the few years GWB’s been in office, but in the same light, he hasn’t really helped the situation.) I know it all calls for massive changes and I’m sure that more and more people, as they become aware of their surroundings (fleeing scrupulously from the ignorance that government in general has used as a control technique, but that’s another subject altogether) will start to understand the word SUSTAINABLE. Sure, we can sustainably farm a few acres and make a nice new wetland so the local ducks can be used as target practice, but sustainable includes more than that. Let’s say… Let’s say all 3 billion people (or what ever it is) that live in coastal regions are relocated by the goverenments. Let’s also assume we stop using good, clean drinking water to water our lawns and fuel our factories. (There’s always grey water people.) And maybe, just maybe, OPEC takes its greedy little [edit] and all its members and sets up on Mars where we won’t feel them breathing down our backs. Sustainable communities can be set up with sustainable energy and food sources (through forms of integrated crop management)and eventually disaster free communities. Sustainable communities will add to a stable environment (demonstrated fact by numerous Scientists and Communities) and a happier, healthier race.
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Thank you for putting things into context for most people who wouldn’t otherwise realize the situation. I am a Pakistani Canadian and things are horrible. As you are a part of the Metroblogging network, I’m sure you have skimmed through the Lahore and Karachi metblogs, they have done a phenomenal job. The devastation that has been caused is quite accurate as you have mentioned, and if you add a third world factor of an already malnourished illiterate people who are cold in sub-zero temperatures in the himalayan mountain ranges, things just seem to get worse.
As far as Star’s comment goes, those buildings up in Northern Pakistan are literally made of shit. Most villages are erected using bricks and cowdung as mortar and collapse rather easily. And yes, California is only the 11th largest economy in the world, so I’m sure that they would be able to make houses and buildings that are a bit more quake proof than cowdung. An average tremor that would ordinarily just feel like a Subway rumbling underneat the streets could flatten a village altogether.
You want to place blame for it, too bad. Not everyone grew up with silver spoons in their mouth.
The Earth has always had its creaks and groans. The tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake were both the result of tectonic movement, something which we humans have no control over.
In contrast, what we do have control over is where we live and how much we breed. Huge broods of offspring are created in poverty, with little distance between the generations—the mothers are still mere children—while quite often under religious edict to eschew birth control and multiply and replenish the earth.
That may have made sense 2K+ years ago. It’s a bit myopic today, when medical advances have allowed us moderns to improve the infancy survival rate everywhere in the world.
The reality is that we have irresponsibly outpaced disease and famine and we now are reaping the consequences.
Gene was right again: We are tribbles.
It’s a bit myopic today, when medical advances have allowed us moderns to improve the infancy survival rate everywhere in the world.
I wish people who don’t live in North America or Europe and the other few scattered first world nations could share your view.
After the tsunami, I too was having a hard time getting my head around the magnitude of the deaths.
(Aside: I don’t think this stuff happens any more than it ever did. We just have “better” reporting of it, so we don’t miss a single tragedy anywhere in the world.)
A quick google turned up the fact that worldwide, approximately 56 million people die each year, or 153,000 people on an average day.
That helps me put disasters like the tsunami and Pakistan quake into a more manageable context.
As terrible as these tragedies are, especially for the local areas that are most directly affected, on a global, annual scale they are hardly more than blips.
I want to stress that this perspective doesn’t make me care any less about the people who are affected; it simply allows me to hear about them without losing my ability to function.
All that being said, I also wonder about the collective wisdom of having substantial population centers in areas that are statistically CERTAIN to have periodic major devastation.
For example, people living in the shadow of Mt. Ranier in Washington. The population rises each year, as does the chance that the inevitable will happen that year. Millions may die, and only then will people question the wisdom of living in the shadow of a ticking time bomb.
And in the grand scheme of things, it will still be a blip.
For that matter, the Vogons could come and destroy Earth to make way for an interstellar bypass, and it would STILL be a blip in the grand scheme of things. But I digress.
I agree with StarkRG to some extent. It’s not the earthquake that kills, it’s the buildings. Look at Japan. Stronger earthquakes have happened there, yet only 1 or 2 people have died.
I was in Istanbul, Turkey on August 17th 1999 when that huge 7.4 earthquake which lasted for 45 seconds took place. It was a complete disaster and over 30.000 people died, though that’s not official. And all of them died because their apartments or buildings collapsed. But in richer parts of the city, pretty much nothing happened.
My point is, it’s all about the quality of the buildings. Turkey has learned a lesson from the past earthquake and has started rebuilding houses wisely.
I just wish other countries, especially those in the earthquake regions, would do the same thing.
The writer of DailyKos, Richard is one of my customers every Tuesday for Drinking Liberally in Philadelphia. I’ll be sure to let him note you appreciated his links!
Because of: “This creates a situation in which ordinary events like earthquakes and hurricanes become increasingly elevated to the level of natural disasters that reap heavy losses in human life and property.”
I will have a job the second I graduate. Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies. For me, the only way to go.
I have another consideration that was touched on a bit by R. Craig Harman “The Earth has always had its creaks and groans…”
Consider that the earthquakes and tsunamis are not bad for the Earth. They’re only bad for us humans, who, because of sentience and language even comprehend the idea of what “bad” is.
And we have come to equate lots of people dying due to a natural occurance of the Earth’s life cycle as “bad”. It’s all just a part of the everyday story of life, and we’re the ones making up the story.
Just something to consider…
I wish people who don’t live in North America or Europe and the other few scattered first world nations could share your view.
Sorry, Halai, but statistics bear this out, whether or not you choose to share the view. Note, I didn’t say that LDC infant mortality rates aren’t 10-20 times higher than MDCs. They are, and that’s deplorable, but the fact remains that they have improved. It’s simply a dispassionate assessment of the statistics.