Well, I am sure most of you know about the earthquake that hit on March 12th. We spent the entire morning watching the BBC. The death toll started at a few hundred but within a few hours it had risen to the thousands and now they are predicting that the death toll will be over 10,000. There was talk that Peru would be hit by waves from the tsunami but so far it hasn´t been too bad. There was some damage done by the 1.5 meter waves but nothing too serious. I have been fascinated with the aftermath and I have been reading a lot about what the consequences might be on a social and geographical level. I met a couple here in Cusco on Thanksgiving at the Real McCoy. They were riding their bikes through South America and then heading to Japan. I have followed their blog and they were on the last flight into Japan before the quake hit. They are currently living in the airport and have quite the story. It´s an interesting read. To end the hyperlinks I have one more that I recommend looking at. It´s a New York Times page with before and after satellite pictures of Japan. It´s insane!
Either way, the Earth is pissed off at us. The thing with natural disasters is that there is no one to blame. I personally blame the human population as whole but it´s kind of difficult to make a direct connection, other than we consume and don´t give back. We have lacked respect for our planet and she´s firing back. The worst part is that lots of lives were and are going to be lost in the subsequent natural disasters. The best we can do is help out in anyway possible to help reconstruct and take care of those affected. It wouldn´t hurt to become a little more conscious of our actions and how they affect the environment around us. My heart goes out to all the people in Japan who were affected, including my college classmate who was signing a renewal contract to teach as the quake hit. Fortunately, he took cover and was on the 9th floor of a building, so he was not swept away by the subsequent tsunami.
In other news, there are new pics up in the albums ¨Peru¨, ¨Maximo¨, ¨Yamanya¨ and ¨An Ecuadorian Christmas¨. I realized I never put up the pictures from Christmas on the blog so here they are. Enjoy!
I read today that the area of Japan hit by the quake is now 13 feet closer to California, as measured by GPS satellites, than it was before the quake.
ReplyDeleteThis from a very powerful quake. But consider the following for perspective.
350 million years ago the Atlas Mountains now in northeast Africa and the Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern US were one and the same mountain range and there was no Atlantic Ocean.
Rather than being upset at humanity, the earth continues to evolve geologically with complete indifference to human life. Past events, prior to the appearance of Man, resulted in over 90% of all species being eliminated. Life, as is its way, bounced back.
What makes Mankind different is we are capable of knowing what we are doing but the effect of our huge population and hyper-consumption habits make it look like we are as unthinking as an earthquake in our destructive effect on the planet.
Noted! Thanks for the info!
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