Aw, jeez, I need to stop surfing the internet. I just came across a website called Recent Natural Disasters, and it gives you all the reported disasters all over the world, 24 hours a day. I have a hard enough time avoiding my tendency to anthropomorphize nature, especially when it seems as though the planet is becoming more and more pissed off.
Typhoon Haiyan has certainly displaced thousands of people, but it’s only the latest in what seems to be an increasing number of natural disasters, from the expected to the downright bizarre. I mean, who expects flooding in Saudi Arabia? But that’s been happening, too.
And I’m stunned by how many of these events have escaped my notice up to this point. Here are but a few of the headlines from the past few months:
Massive landslide in Denali National Park, Alaska – Could take 10 days to clear
Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano eruption prompts evacuation of 3,300
Mudslide traps 20 in Cross Rivers, Nigeria
Very severe cyclonic storm Phailin: India’s biggest evacuation operation in 23 years, 43 killed
Eurasia’s highest volcano Klyuchevskoi spews ash up to 3.7 miles
40,000 evacuated amid Gujarat flooding
7.7 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan kills 400, Awaran declares emergency
Flooding in Bunkpurugu, Ghana kills 1, displaces 6,000
Shanghai heat wave 2013: Hottest temperature in 140 years!
Spanish Mallorca forest fire: Worst fire in 15 years evacuates 700
Namibia African Drought: Worst in 30 years
Yarnell, Arizona Wildfire 2013: 19 firefighters killed
Central African Republic gold mine collapse kills 37, national mourning declared
Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand flood 2013: At least 5,500 killed
Colorado wildfires destroy 360 plus homes, 38,000 evacuated
Whether you believe in Global Climate Change or not, don’t you sometimes get the feeling that we as a species are no longer wanted on this planet? And if so, who could blame Mother Nature? I mean, we take and take and take, and what we give in return is pollution, destruction, and devastation. If a guest in my home were behaving this badly, I’d kick him out, too.
The View from a Drawbridge 