|
Soccer moms could teach Indian Ocean nations
something about communication
By Jay Lehr, Ph.D.
Science director, The Heartland Institute
Send a link to a friend
[JAN. 8, 2005]
It has been said that lack
of communication lies at the bottom of most human problems. This is
certainly true of what will likely become the largest human tragedy
in recorded history, the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.
|
|
The U.S. Geological Survey and its 120
worldwide earthquake stations recognized the quake and its epicenter
almost immediately. Indonesia, a very poor country, has 33
earthquake monitoring stations, and they recognized a quake. The
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, with its stations placed to measure
Pacific Ocean quakes, nevertheless recognized a quake as far away as
the Indian Ocean. But word did
not reach the Indian Ocean nations quickly enough.
A communications network might not
have helped Banda Aceh in Indonesia, the population center closest
to the epicenter of the earthquake. But an effective network would
have helped everyplace else.
Soccer teams have telephone trees
staffed by the moms; they can communicate a change in plans in a
matter of minutes. Why can't scientists and nations do the same?
The Indian Ocean lacks an official
tsunami warning center, but it certainly had enough equipment and
scientists on hand to sense what was going on. It had the
information but lacked the soccer moms' telephone tree.
Many scientists tried to
communicate, but on a Sunday they could not find responsible people
answering phones. Many countries did not communicate with other
countries in this dire situation because, believe it or not, it is
against international protocol. As humorist Dave Barry likes to say,
I am not making this up.
[to top of second column
in this commentary] |
It will take only days to improve
communication in the Indian Ocean for a future tsunami. I predict
that within a year, or even less, there will be an official Indian
Ocean tsunami warning center nearly as sophisticated as the one
built in the Pacific 50 years ago. But for the millions suffering
the aftermath of this world's greatest tragedy, it will have been
too late.
We do learn from our mistakes. It
has been 120 years since the last major Indian Ocean earthquake and
tsunami, generated by the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa. So perhaps
we cannot blame anyone for the complacency that was at least
partially responsible for the magnitude of this tragedy.
Perhaps society will learn from this
a greater lesson about the importance of human communication, at all
levels and with respect to all problems and potential problems.
And if we can learn that lesson, we
might look back at this event 500 years from now and still consider
it the world's greatest tragedy -- never eclipsed in the intervening
centuries.
[Jay Lehr]
Dr. Jay Lehr is science director of
The Heartland Institute and editor of several leading scientific
reference books, including McGraw-Hill's Handbook on Environmental
Science, Health and Technology. |
