3266 Falling Apart

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

"We sense that life is a dark comedy and maybe we can live with that.
However, because the whole thing is written for the entertainment of the gods,
too many of the jokes go right over our heads."
-- Dean Koontz, Mr. Murder --

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(Click on the photos to see them without interference.)

Photos from Joplin and Minneapolis, from Boston.com:
Full set at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/05/deadly_tornados_strike_again.html.

Photos of the latest volcano in Iceland, from Boston.com:
Full set at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/05/another_icelandic_eruption_gri.html.

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I get annoyed at people who go on and on about how there are so many "more" and "bigger" natural disasters "these days", and how that's "proof" of whatever their pet theory is.

There aren't more tornadoes, hurricaines, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis, floods, mudslides, anything, really, not in the long view. (Maybe more and larger forest fires in the western US, but that has a lot more to do with forestry management policies than anything natural.)

It just seems like there's more, but only because we hear more about them now. Some years there are more than others, but that's always been true. The human impact is higher now, but that's because there's more people, not because the event is worse. For example, tornadoes that used to tear through prairies with little notice, now, following the same path, tear through suburbs.

Nature (or God) isn't out to get us. Humans are out to get Nature.
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