Typhoon Haiyan: There are Few Words

© 2013 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee

Destruction inTacloban City  after Typhoon Haiyan   photo by metro.co.uk

“If Typhoon Haiyan is not a wake-up call to the leaders of all nations, what is?

 

 

There are few words that can adequately describe the horror of the latest environmental  tragedy  in the Philippines following what may be the largest, most severe storm in recorded history. Typhoon Haiyan  (Yolanda)  lashed the Philippines with  unprecedented  furor and destruction. With winds up to  380km/hr and a 16ft.ocean surge, low-lying islands, cities, and the shantytowns of the poor were flattened, flooded and decimated.

Perhaps 11 million people affected and 1.9 million or more people homeless, without food, water or shelter,  entire cities and islands trashed, thousands of people have been killed  and thousands are missing.    The magnitude of this disaster defies the imagination of the civilized world –almost to a surreal  state of disbelief as mass graves are filled with  unidentified dead.  The Philippines will clearly not recover for many years other than by the human spirit and  the resilience of the people.  World-wide, there can be no such thing as ‘ too much help’  offered to the Philippines at this time.

Hard questions must be asked.

Why was typhoon Haiyan so fierce, so violent?   What created the ‘perfect storm’ ?  What has the developed world  done to the environment?  Has “global warming” finally declared itself to the world’s doubters?   Is the out-of-control petroleum industry including Canada’s Oil Sands environmental disaster responsible? Think if you dare.

Why wouldn’t overpopulation of the world cause climate change?  Why wouldn’t hundreds of thousands  of acres of  oily, polluted,  barren land in Canada’s oil sands NOT change the climate?  How about the destruction of rain forests?  Clear cutting of forests, complete destruction  with thousands, yes,   thousands of species now gone extinct?   How about Japan’s Fukushima, with radiation now  contaminating the entire Pacific Ocean to the shores of North America?  As an aside, why does the media not report the truth?

There are few words to describe how sublime it is that the “civilized” developed nations of the world seem to have learned nothing from the poison of Chernobyl, and Fukushima, and increasingly violent weather;  hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, rising sea levels and floods. We remain tongue-tied at the ignorance demonstrated by international governments and policy.

To the leaders and greedy corporate interests of the world, it might be a brilliant  idea to wake up, grow up, become actual leaders, and start thinking about solutions and environmental responsibility. Exploitation of the globe for endless profit is not sustainable.

If Typhoon Haiyan is not a wake-up call to the leaders of all nations, what is?

There are few words to describe the horror of this tragedy, but there are also not nearly enough words to describe the foolishness of humans, the only species in the world foolish enough to knowingly  and willfully  destroy the very environment ALL living things–including humanity itself– require to survive. This is not a guessing game. It is a cold, hard fact. Time is up.

There is no longer guesswork  about how the destruction of the planet is guaranteed. How short-sighted, and above all, how mindlessly stupid we have been.  Think about it if you dare.

There really ARE few words

Meantime,  let us put aside  political ideology, stupidity, and self-interest;  let us help the people of the Philippines wherever humanly possible. There really ARE few words that can describe how badly action is needed, and now is the time.

Will the world respond? Will the politicians and greedy of the world merely see Haiyan as yet  merely another event from which to score political points and glean profit?  

Is that Incoming I hear?

photo credit: courtesy of  Metro.co.uk

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