Monday, January 10, 2005

Soaked Hillside Gives Way, Killing 2 on California Coast. At least 12 people are still missing after part of a rain-saturated hillside came crashing down, burying four blocks of an oceanfront town. By By NICK MADIGAN and CHARLIE LeDUFF. [NYT > Home Page] This follows on the previous post, there are places no amount of engineering will make living safe. Unfortunately, this doesn't make these locales any less popular and people will pay a premium to live there. Ask a geologist before you buy, it could save your life. 9:51:04 PM     Comment []

I wrote the following early on, as the news of the devastation came in. I knew that it needed to be written. But it was harsh to write at the time and shouldn't be released until we had thought about it a little. I am releasing it now, but it is still harsh and I don't think that we have though about it. While the body count climbs and the human tragedy is realized, we will start hearing about how this is one of the biggest natural disasters in history. I have trouble with the term "natural disaster". For while the earthquake and tsunami are natural events for the earth, the disaster was man-made. Over 3/4s of a billion people live in the coastal countries and states around the eastern Indian Ocean. If 1% live on the coast, that is nearly 8 million people. The earthquake and tsunami hit one of the most densely populated parts of the world. The death toll should not be surprising. After the fact, we find that dense mangrove forests may have diminished the tsunami's local impact. These forests have been greatly diminished in recent decades. Removal of these forests along the coasts may have played a role in the excessive death toll. We are making planet where every natural event becomes a disaster. These disasters are not natural, they are man-made. 8:58:52 PM     Comment []

New Voices Wanted in Citizen Journalism. New Voices, a "pioneering program to seed innovative citizen media ventures around the country," has some money available for promising new ventures. Details here. [Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism] This would be a good opportunity to build on the neighborhood news sites that are slowly cropping up. So far the biggest hurdle seems to be time and volunteer interest. Perhaps a little money could help in the process. Can you imagine San Jose neighborhoods sharing their concerns, notes, and calendars with each other in real time. You wouldn't have to wait for the next UNSCC or DNLF meeting, you could get the information on your neighborhood's website now. If someone wants to jump on this, I can help with technical details. 3:25:20 PM     Comment []