Dealing with disasters

natural disasters are unpredictable, but the way the situation was managed in the recent Gujarat earthquake, for instance, has unearthed many flaws in the existing disaster management system. Unfinished rescue operations, food and water shortage and insufficient medical aid has shown that the country is not geared up to tackle such a calamity.

History in the stump

an international team looked at the seasonal growth rings in 28 specimens of 500 centuries old Fitzroya cupressoides , a conifer found in South America to trace a picture of the world's climate 50,000 years ago.

Climate costs

Changes in the climate could cost the world more than US $300 billion annually, predicts a report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The report predicts that by 2050 the losses caused by tropical cyclones, loss of land from sea-level changes, damage to water supplies, agriculture and fishing stocks could cost US $304 billion each year. The study assumes that the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases would have risen from the present level of 360 parts per million (ppm) to 550 ppm.

EL Salvador

At least 274 people were killed and 2,937 injured when an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale shook El Salvador on February 13, 2001. The epicentre of the earthquake was 20 kilometres from San Salvador, El Salvador's capital city. Salvador's National Emergency Committee reported that the quake triggered 25 landslides. Hundreds of buildings collapsed following the earthquake.

No signs of science

D eath and earthquakes do not come by appointment. However, an earthquake gives definitive indications of its arrival. In Gujarat, there were many. A 4.2 magnitude quake rocked the Rann of Kachhch on December 24, 2000. Its epicentre was 22 km away from Bhuj. Bhavnagar, near Bhuj, also felt several tremors before that. These tremors should have been wake-up calls for Indian scientists. But seismologists never took these tremors seriously.

Shaky business

T he Gujarat earthquake has proved that even in the highly seismic zones like Bhuj, Uttarakhand and the Northeast, our preparedness and crisis management is a monumental failure. Bhuj is one of the 13 hotspots on India's seismic hazard map that was prepared three years ago. The assessment was that Bhuj might experience earthquake with a maximum magnitude of 8.5 in 50 years.

Boiling point

for the first time, in an unequivocal verdict, scientists have held human activities responsible for most of the warming of the Earth's atmosphere over the last 50 years. Latest assessment of scientific studies of climate change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ipcc) predicts that such actions will continue to change the composition of atmosphere throughout the 21st century.

UNITED NATIONS

About 830 million people around the world have not got sufficient food to eat because of natural disasters, armed conflicts and poverty, says the United Nations World Food Programme. "From generation to generation, people do not have enough food to eat," said Catherine Bertini, the agency's executive director. The worst-hit regions include large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where tens of millions of people, most of them women and children, do not have sufficient food.

Earth-shaking intervention

more than 683 people were killed, 2,412 injured and hundreds reported missing when an earthquake hit Guatemala and El Salvador, two central American nations, on January 13, 2001. The highest number of deaths were reported from Santa Tecla, a suburb of San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador.

KILLING CYCLONE

At least eight people were killed in Sri Lanka and about half a million forced to evacuate their homes when a cyclone hit the northeastern parts of the island on December 26. The cyclone was accompanied with winds up to 145 kilometres per hour that uprooted trees and caused extensive damage to vehicles. "We need to mobilise our resources to help those who fled to safety from their homes to return," said Sunil Gamage, a government relief official.