A Tsunami Disaster That Braced The World (Climate change)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Climate change
Date:	01/01/05 (247 review reads)
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Have you ever posted something and then questioned the timing of the post? When I say “post” I mean posting an opinion on Dooyoo as opposed to Royal Mail post (or lack of depending on service levels). Well, that’s how I felt after posting an opinion about US foreign policy and the ramifications post Afghanistan and, more specifically, post the latest re-election of George Dubbya Bush. Not that I regret anything I said in that piece because I don’t. The only minor reservation I had was the absolute certainty (or absolute uncertainty) of knowing anything can be absolutely true or conversely false and the incredible reliance we have on the world’s media to tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. At the risk of turning into a post-Orwellian bag of paranoid jelly then the answer is I can’t be sure can I? So anyway, a tenuous link but one that can be made is the flood of images that have poured out of the Asian region recently flattened by both earthquakes and tsunami (an unfortunate turn of phrase for which I apologise).

The events of the last few days can’t have done anything but have left a lasting mark on everyone concerned. As I watched the firework display from London last night, it was with a certain sobriety that I pondered 2005 and what it might bring. Images of distraught parents cascade through the pages of my paper today along with all those stories of abject terror and heroism. The curious thing is as to whether these events have been caused by global warming. Every day it seems, a further barrage of statistics are trotted out to suggest that Maidenhead will turn into Marrakech sometime next Spring and the concept of winter snow will fade away with the final strains of Auld Lang Syne. The latest reports suggest that the chances of winter snow south of bonny Scotland will be reduced by up to 50% by the year 2050. It’s all very depressing especially seeing as we invested in some sleighs a few years back. Saying that, I think we’ve used ‘em once in the last few years.

The tsunami that appears to have claimed at least 124000 lives so far and made millions more homeless appears to have resulted from the collision of two large tectonic plates in the Asian basin. This collision resulted in the largest recorded earthquake in the last 200 years for that part of the world - the ensuing tidal wave impacting on Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and many other parts of Asia as well as careering 3000 miles west to hit the coastline of East Africa killing yet more people. In fact, the earthquake was so powerful that the Earth may have even wobbled on its axis. The threat is not over what with the threat of after shocks.

Apart from heart going out to the unimaginable numbers of people affected, this whole incident did make me think about the environment and the dog’s dinner that we appear to be making of it. With Tony Blair due to take the chair of the G8, he is promising to bring the matter back to the top of the agenda along with debt relief for the third world. This issue of debt relief may help the affected countries following the recent disaster. However, the underlying problem is co-ordinating a global effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto agreement of 1997 (go tohttp://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.htm l) was meant to be a step along a planned pathway to take action on an issue that affects just about everyone on the planet. As ever with anything like this (and the risk of beginning to sound anti-American which I am not), it can only work if everyone agrees and sticks to the plan. In our case, the US disagreed realising that it couldn’t hit the targets without upsetting the corporate barons of industry (see http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/akyotoqa.asp for more background). I can’t help thinking that dissension from the mighty US reflects the sad, over commercialised, possession obsessed world we live in.

For anyone that hasn’t stumbled across this ongoing topic then the steady rise year in year in the Earth’s temperature has been put down to the almost criminally high levels of gases that erode the protective layer of ozone that blankets the Earth preventing the intrusion of dangerous levels of radiation from the Sun’s rays. The main culprit appears to be carbon dioxide amongst others. If things go unchecked then all manner of disasters are forecast as I realised when I was treated to a showing of the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” on the homeward trip from Crete earlier this year. The ride was suitably bumpy with me watching goggled eyed at tsunami, tornadoes and hurricanes the size of continents ripping the Earth to shreds (I’m sure there was a gremlin on the plane’s wing too) as the aeroplane bumped it’s way through some rotten weather.

We can only hope that the world’s industrialised super powers do finally take this threat seriously. As ever, the issue is clouded by money so it would be easy to remain cynical over whether any real action will be taken before it’s too late and we are all living on the final metre square piece of land left somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Just now and again, something happens to change this perception of doom and gloom and the story in The Times today that over £45million has been pledged by the British public for the tsunami disaster beggars belief. Maybe we aren’t the heartless wannabes that we sometimes think and when you understand that this sum dwarfs the figures promised by many governments then you come to realise what a kind lot we are really.

In many ways, this was an opportunity to express my feelings on the subject of a tragedy, the scale of which is hard to imagine. Whilst it crosses over to a degree with the debate around global warming, maybe these events were simply destined to happen with little that could have been done to stop them. Of course, the early warning system in place in other oceans and not in the Indian Ocean for reasons of cost may scupper that argument but hindsight is a great thing and money still limits us as to what could and should get done. I simply hope that those people effected recover sufficiently to lead a contented life and that the impressive action taken on a global scale and in a brief timeframe suggests that when we really want to do what is right, we can.

Thanks for reading and here is to a happy 2005.

Marandina

Note: Those that want to donate to the Tsunami Earthquake appeal can do so at www.dec.org.uk

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