Category: Let's talk
Yesterday Indonesia still struggling to recover from the devestating tsunami, was rocked by a huge earthquake. Today the death toll was put at over 2,000, with many dead and injured still buried in the rubble.Indonesia was put on alert recently when the volcano Merapi showed signs of erupting, scientists now predict that the earthquake may trigger a massive eruption which could cause a devestating tusnami and destroy a large part of Java.
Some things are so horrible, that the imagination just can't grasp it. This is one of those things for me. I really can't imagine such loss and devistation. I hope those folks who are believers in a higher being will pray for these folks.
Bob
agreed. that is horrible and sad....but there is still hope, and since we know about the possibilities we can help prepare as best we can.
I was so shocked when I heard it. 4000 people or more dead, and so many homeless ones. And yes, they still had to struggle with the Tsunami anyway. I will pray for them and if I had my own money I would donate for an organization which is there and helps.
The toll is now 5,000 but the aid is getting through albeit slowly.I hate to be negative here, but there is nothing anyone can do, to prepare for an eruption on the scale of Merapi.
it's scary, not to mention all the horrors going on in east timor as well...I wish my country would do more for them...we really could afford to take in more refugees, but our government won't here of it...
It's hellish and I cannot believe the government of Indonesia is not even considering evacuation, it seems they are prepared to play a waiting game...Galileo the problem is and I'm going to contradict myself here, once you start allowing people in, where do you draw the line?.
5.000 people. I can#t believe that. they still try and rebuild everything from the Tsunami, and there comes the next catastrophy.
What else can they do but rebuild and hope, but I wonder just how long they can keep hoping, before giving up altogether.
Well, essentially, cruel as it is. Those islands exist exactly because of the Pacific ring of fire, they have halfof the world's active volcanoes and they're right on the border between two tactonic plates. On the upside the volcanic eruptions help to create some of the most fertile soil in the world. People who live there have faced those catasttophies throughout the ages. What makes them more drastic now is the over population both of those islands and of the world as a whole, forcing people to live in more dangerous areas, raising the surface of the ocean, thus endangering lives. I'm not sure how we can tackle that really, disasters will always happpen, anywhere, hurriances and tornados, earth quakes, extreme drouts, war, floods, avanlanches, take your pick, every place you live has risk of one or more of these phenomina. We must just react and help each other and do what we can to predict nature. It's a relatively new science and it'll take time to learn enough to be able to warn people. I think we're doing the best we can, given the circumstances.
If the government there would realize that overpopulation ... could they do anything against it? I mean, I am sure it is nothing new to them, but probably they just don't care. But if they cared ... could they do anything?
Ines, no sadly there'snot much they can do. It's up to people to decide if and how many children they have. Population growth is our biggest problem (except in Europe where we actually have population decline).
Stemming population growth should be our highest priority in terms of combatting environmental problems and decline. I think we're grown so numerous that the planet won't be able to sustein us for much longer.
Hmm your venturing into risky territory here, apart from enforced contraception ect..which is almost impossible to police, it's also a breech of human rights.
OH, I'm not saying we can or we should do that. I'm not sure exactly how we could stem population growth. I think better education, better awareness and availibility of contraceptions are all factors, but I don't think we can enforce contraception upon the general population of the planet either. But it is a fact that as land becomes scares people m move to areas before uninhibited, meaning more risky and more fragile, closer to the ocean, on the very sides of volcanoes etc. I really don't know what we can do about it but the unintended effect of this is that when a natural disaster happens nowadays you're much more likely to have a big population living close enough to be in harm's way.
Goblin, there are people in our detention senters who have been there for more than 5 years, surely that's not right, my view is that we should grant them refugee status, the number of people being kept in these places is ludicress, it's not worth the tax payers money. we, as a country with very few people, compared to the rest of the world, can afford to be a little more charetable than we are, i'm not saying let every man and his dog in, but i think we could afford to let more people in than we do, it's not easy to choose who, but surely some is better than none?