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When such a disaster as the South Asian earthquake and tsunami strikes, there is nothing much that can usefully be said. All that we can do is identify the cause (apparently straightforward enough in this case), express our horror and condolences, send emergency aid and do whatever is necessary to help the shattered communities rebuild.
| But a dignified silence is not an option in our multimedia rolling news world. So the space has been filled with endless, and often rather ghoulish, reports of the devastation, complete with colour pictures of dead bodies on beaches. Worse, some have sought to ride that tsunami as the vehicle for their pet political messages, mostly based on the reactionary anti-human, anti-development prejudices that are so powerful today.
| Thus we have been told over and again that such a natural disaster shows how 'puny' humanity truly is before the might of Mother Nature; in the words of UK foreign secretary Jack Straw, we are supposed to find this 'truly humbling as well as profoundly tragic' (1). The implicit message is that we should be less arrogant and give up any idea of trying to overcome nature.
| Of course, it was not really possible to pin the responsibility for this tsunami on human intervention, since man-made global warming (now commonly blamed for many of the world's problems) cannot cause tectonic plates to move around. But that has not stopped some from trying to twist the story to fit this familiar script. So we have been warned that the killer tsunami is a sure sign of what is to come for us all, if we don't do more to combat global warming by reducing our emissions - which means cutting back on economic output growth. Some have claimed that 'too much' tourism development in South Asia was partly to blame for the disaster, because it has led to 'environmental degradation' and reduced the area's natural sea defences.
| Even if we don't want to add to the millions of useless words spoken and written about the tragedy, it is necessary to respond briefly to these responses. For a start, let us remember to put this disaster in some perspective. These terrible events are so shocking because most of us have seen nothing like them before. The earthquake was apparently the world's biggest for 40 years, and it caused a huge tsunami across a region where tidal waves are rare. It would be crazy to use this extraordinary disaster as evidence that we are somehow all adrift on a dangerous planet that is completely beyond our control.
| More importantly, we need to counter all the nonsense about becoming more humble and 'learning the lessons' of humanity's limitations. This disaster was obviously not caused by human activity. But more human activity, leading to greater economic and social development, can help us to limit the effects of such disasters. There is nothing natural about how much damage an earthquake, hurricane or tsunami causes, or how many casualties it leaves behind. These things are largely determined by the state of the societies that are struck. As a general rule, the more advanced and richer we are, the better protected we will be.
| The vast majority of the thousands killed in South Asia were not foreign tourists, but locals from impoverished fishing and farming communities near the coasts. It is a sign of backward, underdeveloped economies that so many are still dependent on the sea and the coast, much as their ancestors were (with the addition that many now also depend on beach tourism). It is the lack of economic and social development in modern towns and cities, with properly designed and constructed buildings, that left these communities so exposed to nature.
| There has been much talk about the lack of a hi-tech warning system for earthquakes and tsunamis in South Asia, such as the seismological monitoring system already in place in the Pacific Ocean (where such phenomena are more common). Yet whatever its merits, such a system would seem to be of limited use in societies that lack the basic infrastructure necessary to communicate warnings and evacuate communities. Some in the West may be shocked to learn that not every little Asian fishing village is on the internet. They would need more than a precautionary warning system (which in any case is prone to false alarms) to cope better with the impact.
| | | The problem in these parts of Asia is that development has not gone nearly far enough |
| Just look at the stark contrast between the damage done by similar disasters in different societies. Exactly one year before the Asian undersea earthquake (which measured 9 on the Richter scale), an earthquake measuring 6.3 devastated the Iranian city of Bam. More than 50,000 people were killed, making it comparable to the recent disaster in human terms - although, partly because none of them were Western tourists, we heard less about it. Just four days before the Bam tragedy, an earthquake of similar magnitude rocked California, one of the wealthiest states in the USA. It destroyed buildings, but left just two people dead. The difference between 50,000 dead and two is one of development. Advances in technology, construction and transport mean that natural disasters rarely cause mass casualties in developed societies. Of course, nothing that exists in California could have prevented the huge Asian tsunami creating havoc. But it could have greatly reduced the human cost.
| Instead of acknowledging this simple fact, the message implicit in many responses to the Asian disaster is that it is folly for us feeble humans to get ideas above our station and try to do 'too much'. Writing in the London Times, the Conservative Lord William Rees-Mogg argued that 'the tsunami mocks the pride' of our 'arrogant' modern societies, and shows that 'nature, and not mankind, is still the real master'. While conceding that global warming did not cause the Asian disaster, he insisted that 'the tsunami did mimic some of the effects that global warming is now expected to have' if we do not make sacrifices to protect the environment, and speculated as to what impact such a tidal wave might have on London (2).
| In responses such as these, serious journalism meets the sort of 'what if?' scenario popularised by the movie The Day After Tomorrow, in which man-made global warming causes a tidal wave that devastates New York. These Hollywood-style horror stories bear little relationship to the real science of climate change, where there are still serious questions to be answered about the scale and consequences of global warming. But the logic of the argument for economic restraint is to deny those societies struck by the tsunami the chance to achieve the very levels of development that would best equip them to cope with disasters.
| Some eco-activists even claim that the tsunami proves development has already gone too far in these countries. One Indian activist claims that South Asia's ancient mangrove forests provided the best protection against the sea, before many were cleared for construction related to the tourism industry (3). So the road to the future presumably leads back to the mangrove swamps. But the problem is not that 'over-development' in these parts of Asia has somehow disrupted nature. It is that development has not gone nearly far enough. It has been patchy, uneven and concentrated on such fragile sectors as tourism, leaving millions in poverty and exposed to the elements.
| If some crackpot preacher suggested that the South Asian disaster was God's vengeance for the sins of the tourist trade, there would be justifiable outrage. Yet if today's eco-preachers imply that it is somehow Nature's revenge for the arrogance of humanity, we are supposed to feel humble and nod along, head bowed.
| Like other disasters before it, the terrible events in Asia brought out the best in the human spirit of solidarity and struggle. It is that unconquerable spirit that has enabled us to overcome nature's obstacles time and again in history, dragging ourselves from the caves to something approaching civilisation. The worst thing we could do in the face of the disaster would be to dampen that spirit and accept that humanity has to be more humble. The meek shall not inherit the Earth - and nor will they be equipped to protect themselves against its occasional outrages.
| Mick Hume is editor of spiked.
| (1) World reacts to tsunami disaster, CNN, 28 December 2004
(2) Humbled by nature's power, William Rees-Mogg, The Times (London), 27 December 2004
(3) Mangroves Can Act as Shield against Tsunami, G Venkataramani, The Hindu, 27 December 2004
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