Natural Disasters - A Bad Week For Mother Earth

It's been a bad week of natural disasters, particularly in Asia. Yesterday's Chinese earthquake looks to have caused massive loss of life, 10,000 people so far, undoubtedly, and sadly it looks like there are many more. Due to the mountainous terrain in the area where the worst effects were felt,it must be extremely difficult to get close to the communities that have suffered. The Chinese army, however, are reportedly very good at mobilising for events such as these and will be doing everything they can to get to where help is needed.

The same cannot be said of Burma, following the cyclone of last week, already knocked of the top of the news headlines by the events in China, it remains to be seen whether the full help the people affected is getting there. Reports suggest the Burmese army are 'seizing' the aid and stockpiling it in unknown locations. Such acts are unacceptable to us westerners, but the Burmese army/junta/government have thumbed their noses at the world for years and they will do so again it seems. It may be months before we get the full story from inside Burma as to the real damage and casualties.

The third big event of the week was the Chaiten volcano in Chile, erupting spectacularly and unexpectedly after supposedly being dormant for 9000 years. No fatalities have been reported and the villages near the volcano have all been evacuated before the dust and ash reached them. It remains unclear how the climate in the Southern hemisiphere will be affected in the months to come by the billions of tonnes of ash ejected miles into the atmosphere. It will stay up there and is already visible on satellite photographs spreading eastward right across South America like a white stripe.

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