January 2005 Issue
Tsunami Tsience
EditorialOne is obliged to chortle smugly when otherwise educated, respected environmental leaders begin to spew a barrage of incorrect basic scientific knowledge in response to a major event. The tsunami that devastated South Asia and East Africa prompted many leading environmentalists, scientists, and academicians to issue warnings of inevitable global demise due to the environmentally harmful actions of mankind. Not only are these warnings outrageous, they are detrimental to any sustainable poverty reduction in the undeveloped countries of the world...
As of the time of writing, the tsunami has killed 140,000 throughout the rim of the Indian Ocean. The Bush Administration has pledged $350 million dollars for aid. Private contributions have been hopeful, and the grassroots response throughout the world has been unprecedented: cab drivers in Singapore, children in Spain, citizens in Venezuela, Algeria, Slovenia, etc. have contributed financially. And what have leading environmentalists provided for the effort?
Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper stated, “Here again are yet more events in the real world that are consistent with climate change predictions.” The group subsequently issued a statement claiming that global warming will cause similar events, and thus northern countries must also take responsibility. One particularly inane individual, Greenpeace UK’s executive director, went so far as to claim that “natural” disasters such as the recent tsunami are not natural at all, but the inevitable product of environmental degradation.
World Conservation Union’s chief scientist Jeff McNeely claimed that the disaster was exacerbated by human removal of mangrove trees and coral reefs that would have dissipated the tsunami partially or entirely. Yet the Hindustan Times reports that the last tsunami was so powerful that Sri Lanka’s exquisite coral reefs may have been annihilated completely—a result that even systematic human damage would not have caused. And any barrier of trees, natural or otherwise, would have been uprooted by such a tsunami.
Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes, which are caused by random and unpredictable tectonic shifts. Humans and their environmental degradation cannot cause earthquakes. Pollution and global warming cannot cause earthquakes. Coral reef destruction cannot cause earthquakes. Nuclear warheads cannot cause earthquakes. Anyone wanting to learn more about these surely contentious conclusions is encouraged to enroll in EARS 5 “Quakes for Flakes” (officially, Natural Disasters) with Prof. Leslie Sonders.
Despite the simple science behind tsunamis, leading environmentalists have capitalized on the recent tragedy to expound a pseudoscientific political agenda: decrease industrial development (especially in the Third World) and you’ll prevent the deaths of millions in the future. Shut down tourist enclaves. End shrimp harvesting. Close sweatshops. Destroy factories and farms. Plant trees. Eat vegan. Watch and memorize The Day After Tomorrow. Do all this, and there will be no more tsunamis. No more cyclones, flooding, or earthquakes. No more death or poverty.
The science behind this, clearly, is wrong but appeals to many otherwise educated individuals who yearn to place blame somewhere.
The best solution to the inevitability of disasters like tsunamis is a relatively inexpensive warning system, like one used successfully in Japan. The annual cost is only about $20 million (compare that to $2 billion already contributed to relief efforts by governments, in addition to private aid).
Of course, such funding needs to be routed to direct relief in immediately necessary circumstances, but also channeled to restoring investment and economic development in the affect regions. Only with the rebuilding of farms, factories, infrastructure, and commercial networks can the devastated African and Asian nations create jobs for millions, raise living standards, and recover from this disaster stronger than ever.
Bruce Gago
Editor-in-Chief