Archive: Opinions

Experience has taught us that we have very little control over nature.  For years, we believed that science and technology could provide us with an advantage over the unpredictable changes in climate and other naturally occurring events.  The devastating effects caused by floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other climate related disasters would be a thing of the past.  With the ability to predict these events, governments would activate their emergency preparedness plans and avoid the tragic loss of life and costly destruction to property and infrastructure that historically occurs with natural disasters.

The recent eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, pronounced Eye-A-Fyat-La-Yo-Kutl, brought air travel and commerce to a grinding halt in Europe for nearly a week.  It appears that none of the worlds climatologists or seismic specialists could have predicted  that plumes of smoke and volcanic ask sent some 10-20 thousand feet into the air world hold most of the European continent hostage.  Experts have estimated nearly two billion dollars from lost airline revenues and the grounding of air cargo planes. 

European Governments appeared helpless, unable to address the unexpected emergency caused by the Icelandic volcano.  Photos, video and other images taken at airports and railway stations hearkened back to the early months of World War II with millions of men, women and children desperately seeking an escape route.  This time, the enemy was not an advancing army, but a virtually invisible cloud of ash and dust particles that traveled across western and central Europe forcing airports to close and canceling flights from London and Paris to Berlin, Warsaw and Milan. 

One question that needs to be answered is quite simple.  Where was the contingency plan?  How could countries simply shut down all air travel and expect life to go on as usual?    Everyone had an opinion about Haiti’s tragic earthquake, and that regime’s failure to deal with the crisis.  But what can we say about the so called developed nations and their response to the delays and disruption caused by the volcano? 

Europe was shut down for days.   Fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers and seafood rotted in warehouses.  In response to the crisis, many governments stated that all they could do was wait for the volcano to stop erupting and hope for a favorable wind to take the cloud of ash somewhere else.   With that logic, they might have done better by placing large fans on top of the tallest buildings and tried to deflect the plume of ash and smoke away from their airspace.  

The president of Iceland warned that a second "much bigger" volcano is set to erupt and could spark further chaos. He added: "We have emergency plans in our own country, so I think that it's high time for European governments and airline authorities to start planning." 

Since the 9/11 attacks on our country, we have developed an emergency preparedness plan to deal with disasters both natural and man-made.  Europe needs to develop a contingency plan that will prepare them for the next volcanic eruption.   No country should rely on favorable winds to somehow divert a major catastrophe.  If the President of Iceland is correct, and the next volcanic eruption is much bigger both east and west could be affected closing not only European airports, but those in Boston, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington as well.  I am not a gambling man, and I hope western governments will take precautions now to minimize losses in the future. 
 
In an article published earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the government of Iran is seriously considering adopting a new policy to prevent future earthquakes.  It seems that some clerics and religious scholars have linked the increase in natural disasters with women who wear “immodest clothing.”  In their research, women who expose their arms and faces in public anger God, who in turn, causes earthquakes and other natural disasters as a warning to the world to change their evil ways.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejab hopes to have this policy in place very soon.  It is good to know that some world leaders are tackling the problem head on.  And that is to the point.   

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