Natural Disasters

[mfoyama]

With the new recent triple disaster in Japan, do you feel natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense?

[Falconer02]

Nope. It has always been like this. The reason they seem more frequent is because we have seismometers all around the world now and we're still setting them up constantly just to track seismic activity. We also have such a connection throughout the world via the internet that we can hear about things practically instantaneously as they happen. My friends and I were watching the tsunami strike minutes after it happened on some live feed in the middle east that night (US time obviously). Though horrifying to watch, it is pretty cool that we are able to do that and spread the word about what's going on, right? 100 years ago, it'd take months or years to hear of something like that to hit your ear. And by that time it might not even be big news anymore and just fade into history.

There have been far worse natural disasters throughout history though. I imagine there are plenty that can beat current records that were never even recorded due to humanity not being in those regions in the past to experience them. When you set up a civilization near a fault line, you can't expect earthquakes to move somewhere else. When you build that civilization up, the damage is going to be much more severe if a disaster strikes. It's a really simple equation. Though I will say even though the damage in Japan is pretty awful, the Japanese are very educated and decently equipped to deal with this type of thing compared to places like Haiti or even how we handled New Orleans. Japan rocks. No pun intended.

[vicogden]

I do believe in global warming, but don't think that natural disasters have increased in numbers.  Earthquakes can be expected since the Earth has been shifting since the start of its existence.  I believe we need to treat our planet well, but nothing can stop Mother Nature.

[sdecaro558]

There was a news article recently that claimed there are more natural disasters than there used to be, but I don't think so.  We're just hearing about more of them and about how bad they are because of the internet and news - word about disasters travels farther and faster than it used to.

[vicogden]

That's a good point sd.  Technology has played a major part in giving the appearance of more natural disasters.  Between 24 hour news services, the world wide web, social outlets and media, i.e. Facebook, Twitter etc, NOTHING goes on in the world without nearly instantaneous access by the world populace.

[monnee]

Mother Nature is just cleaning up the earth's mess that we are causing on her planet.   

[footemama]

I also believe that we just hear about things more. I mean if you think about it 100 years ago we probably wouldn't have really heard about Japan at all and certainly not Haiti even though they are closer. We've become such a "small" world with everything hitting us practically the minute that it happens, on 9/11 people actually watched the second tower hit live on the news because they got there that fast after the first tower was hit.

I greatly admire the way that the Japanese are handling the disaster. We could learn alot from them as could most other countries. Yes they are having nuclear problems and yes it's bad and yes their population is concerned as is the rest of the world HOWEVER they don't have vandalism and rioting in the streets or panicky evacuation from towns within 100 miles of the nuclear plants like would be going on most other places. There seems to be this attitude of we will get through this and we will work together to do what we can. Maybe someday we can do that as well....we'll have to get past the me me me attitude that seems to be prevailing in our society though.

[walksalone11]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4Qub4VL6w&feature=player_embedded#at=131

[queenofnines]

Excellent answer, Falconer.  No it is not the end of the world, and that was NOT Japan's worst earthquake.  There always have been and there always will be natural disasters.

The same thing can be said of plane crashes.  Has your chance of dying in one gone up because it seems like we hear about them all the time?  Nope.  Again, it goes back to how much the media reports on these types of things.

[loulizlee]

There have been many natural disasters throughout prehistorical and recorded history.  The earth has scars of many devastating disasters since the beginning of its existence.

[freepcmoney]

I do believe in global warming, but don't think that natural disasters have increased in numbers.  Earthquakes can be expected since the Earth has been shifting since the start of its existence.  I believe we need to treat our planet well, but nothing can stop Mother Nature.

I can't stop laughing. Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha,. You believe in global warming. Ha, Ha, Ha, HA, Ha, Ha, HA, HA, Ha. You must have a college education.Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, THANKS for the Laughs. I really needed them today.

[sarabtrayior]

Natural Disasters occur whenever, no person can control them, that's why they are "Natural Disasters" and folks just have to learn to deal with it...

[foreverinlove05]

honestly...there's never been so much seismic activity in my entire life (at least that i'm aware) and i'm fully convinced that HAARP is causing it, which basically means the government is behind it. a lady on youtube showed that during the time the earthquake occured, HAARP was active. HAARP is what they use to find things underground like oil and water. they use soundwaves, and depending upon the sound that is made when the waves find something, that determines what's been found. NOT ONLY THAT, but when have you ever heard of an earthquake occurring where a whole bunch of whales conveniently beach themselves beforehand?

the person i'm referring to on youtube is brutaltruthmediamaui, look into it before you deem me to be crazy. and yes she's one of those "free spirit" type people that i'm not really a fan of, but she's got good information.

btw, the government is NOT your friend.