Snapshots From the Tsunami Belt

With all the hullabaloo over the recent tragedy in parts of Asia and beyond, I thought I'd offer a little perspective on the event--a perspective seldom mentioned, during the pleas for yet more and more financial aid.

Here's an interesting article. I wonder how much airplay this received on tv? My guess is little or none.

A LEADING geologist repeatedly warned Indonesian officials that an earthquake and tsunami would soon strike their shores, it emerged this weekend.

Kerry Sieh, professor of geology at California Institute of Technology, has been studying the region for nearly a decade.

Last July he became so concerned at the likely massive loss of life that he printed and distributed 5,000 posters and brochures around some of the islands later hit by the earthquake.

He addressed church congregations and schools to tell people what to do in an earthquake. His main advice was for people to live away from shorelines.

Sieh had been due to meet Indonesian officials last month to discuss a wider education programme but the meeting was cancelled at the last minute because the officials said they had no money.

Two weeks ago he expressed his fear that a big earthquake and tsunami were overdue in the region at a conference in San Francisco.

“We told them it would kill people, wreck infrastructure and destroy livelihoods. But our warnings were falling on deaf ears.

So numerous warnings were given--and summarily ignored or downplayed. The lonely voice crying in the wilderness went unheeded.

Anti-human nonsense from the earth worshippers:

Two days after the tragedy, the executive director of Greenpeace UK (search) told the British newspaper The Independent, "No one can ignore the relentless increase in extreme weather events and so-called natural disasters, which in reality are no more natural than a plastic Christmas tree."

A spokesperson for the Indonesian arm of Friends of the Earth told the Agence France Presse, "We can expect in the coming years similar events happening as a result of global warming and therefore help and prevention are the responsibility of the Northern countries as well."

Isn't that a nifty, fact-free assertion from Greenpeace? And blaming well-developed overseas nations for supposed "global warming" problems is a tired rabbit pulled from the environmental movement's moth-eaten hat. It's debatable whether global-warming is occuring. When I was a kid, the overriding concern in the news was the oncoming ice age, supposedly headed our way at quite a bit more than a glacial pace. And as the article points out, the tsunami originated from an earthquake, not erratic weather patterns. So what caused the earthquake? An SUV collision? Flatulent dairy cows? A corporate CEO dropping his bank roll?

Earthquakes aren't caused by the weather or greenhouse gas emissions; they're caused by tectonics — that is naturally moving geological faults. While tectonics may cause climate changes, the reverse is not true.

In the near future, if a comet or other heavenly body collides with our planet, don't be surprised if the grass-smoking tree-huggers point the finger and say: "See, look what happened. If we'd only not ticked off the aliens with all our factories' toxic emissions, this never woulda happened!"