The situation in Japan points out how fragile our lives really are. As far as preparation for disaster goes, Japan in the anti-Haiti.....fairly wealthy, with strong building codes, and a cultural history that remembers past disasters. If there was a country that is prepared for a natural disaster, you would have to expect is to be Japan.
Yet, look at what is happening. Thousands dead, towns destroyed, power outages and a threat of a severe nuclear meltdown. One of the most civilized societies in history thrown into turmoil.
Humans have spent generations developing technologies that allow us to live our current comfortable lives. Middle class people today live far better lives than the rich did 100 years ago, when you take all we have into consideration. Yet, we still can not tame our planet, and it has the ability to throw us back into the stone age pretty fast. We pretend we can build structures strong enough to survive earthquakes, but can we? I remember reading a boast by the extremely dangerous Army Corps of Engineers in the early 90's that they had tamed the Mississippi River.....right before the floods on 1993. Are we just kidding ourselves?
So, don't take you electricity, smooth roads, and electronic entertainment for granted. It could all be gone in a flash!
2 comments:
Hi Glenn,
In regards to the "how fragile our societies are" blog, your closing line that "it could all be gone in a flash" is true. So...where does that leave the confirmed atheist?
Just wondering...
It leaves me still an athiest. Unless you can prove that natural disasters are retribution against mankind for my lack of faith in the invisible man.
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