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Approaching Disaster

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Everyone has been preoccupied with the Y2K problem and its potentially catastrophic effects on civilized society, while Mother Nature seems to be creating a fair amount of chaos already. In recent months, tragedy has not been caused by the widely hyped computer phenomena, but by earthquakes, hurricanes, heat waves, disease and even mosquitoes. The end of the world is probably not going to happen because of one set event, but from an accumulation of devastating natural events.

Because of earthquakes in Greece, Turkey, Taiwan and most recently in Mexico, thousands of people are now dead. These violent forces of nature resulted in people being buried alive in piles of rubble, waiting to be dug out by rescue workers. It resulted in huge buildings crumbling, no electricity and no water for cities with millions.

Hurricanes Hugo, Mitch and Floyd have done their damage. Most recently, Floyd ripped through the East Coast, leaving towns flooded, homes destroyed and crops non-existent.

Has anybody noticed that bigger cities such as Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Houston have been getting bigger and hotter? This past summer heat waves took the lives of hundreds, leaving people to rely on air conditioning to keep them alive. This is not normal.

Unlike the Y2K problem, no one seems to be working on avoiding this chaos. Even though we know where all the major faults are, active and inactive, people continue to build on themĪnot strong buildings, but weak ones. And why is it that people are living in areas that have hurricanes every year yet they refuse to leave?

On top of weather disasters, we have disease. In the last 30 years, we have watched AIDS grow to be one of the greatest epidemics in history. Globally, it has killed over one million, and for everyone who has died, there are several others infected. Ebola, another deadly virus, also has been born, with no cure known to us.

In New York, the West Nile strain of encephalitis, which is spread by mosquitoes, is breaking out. So far it has taken over 20 lives.

Tucson, a microcosm of the world, has mosquitoes that carry the deadly encephalitis virus. By building on and near the wetlands in Tucson, developers have stirred up mosquitoes.

We also have our own water crisis. Not only does living in a desert automatically limit our water supply, but the water we do have is most likely contaminated with radon, a carcinogenic gas.

Y2K is scheduled to happen only once, while natural disasters happen all too frequently and unexpectedly. So, why is it that we have his great fear of Y2K even though there is a good chance it can be fixed? After January 1, 2000, hurricanes, earthquakes, global warming and disease will still be a problem and it is unlikely that they are going to improve.

We need to be more aware about what is happening in the natural world because it is a major problem, and everyone is affected. If people would put in as much effort into the prevention of disasters as they have with the computer problem, maybe we wouldn't be in this scary situation.

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