So I'm sure you've all heard about that massive 8.9 Earthquake (well, estimated to be 8.9) at Japan recently (in context, this is about 10 times more powerful than the infamous 1906 San Francisco Earthquake), which also caused tsunamis that pretty much flattened buildings.
If you haven't heard about it, go read the news or something. It's kind of hard to miss.
But this journal isn't about the earthquake, or the tsunami, or the thousands of people who were are are killed/missing, this journal is about what I thought about it.
So, what did I think about this?
I'm rather ashamed to talk about it, but when I first heard it, I literally wasn't moved at all.
It's was more of a "Yeah, there was a natural disaster, people died, whatever."
I didn't really care at all, because it had nothing to do with me.
Here we are, in our own personal little bubble where we always feel safe, and halfway across the world this natural disaster happens.
I'm not saying everyone reacts the way I did at first, especially since my second reaction, is, well, quite something I am not proud of. Then again, I have thousands of contradicting opinions about everything.
My secondary reaction was not nice at all, and can easily be put into three words that will probably make some of you disgusted with me. But that didn't change what I thought back then:
'Human Population Control.'
Yes, that was what came across my mind. I had always thought that we were overpopulating the world; technology can only go so far, and we don't have unlimited resources, as well as the fact that with so many people, we're not exactly helping pollution, either. Quite the opposite; more people means more pollution, with our current technology. That can not be denied.
At the same time, I did believe that people had a right to live, and simply getting rid of humans would be immoral, as well as the fact it will obviously never be accepted even if it would solve many other world problems. (That's what I meant by contradicting opinions earlier.)
But that's my problem.
I also had a third reaction to this disaster, one I'm was and still thinking about, even during my 4th reaction.
It was an Earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9! Think about all the energy that was needed to create such an earthquake, which created tsunamis with enough energy to flatten Japan's buildings! Imagine if we could harness that power for our energy problems, even if it was unpredictable and unreliable!
And besides, if we transferred all the energy from the earthquake into energy we can use, that energy wouldn't have transferred into the water creating the tsunamis.
Of course, with current technology, this is nigh impossible, but I'm still going to think about it.
My last reaction was when I heard about the destruction of a nuclear power plant in Japan.
US ships were picking up radiation hundreds of miles away! Do you know how serious that is? People living near the plant will have a very high chance of dying in a week from radiation poisoning. That's why nuclear power plants are a dangerous source of energy.
Natural gas and oil is pretty low too, so that's not going to be reliable anymore...
And that's where I start getting off topic in my thoughts.
But seriously.
I think that there are some problems if, from what I've seen, that many people don't seem to care that much, or even joke about it. I heard someone joking about the fact that they couldn't supply water and food to the survivors, but the survivors had internet access.
This is a natural disaster that killed thousands of people, and there are people around the world who don't care. (Myself included, unfortunately. Somehow I couldn't be bothered to care until it happens to me. I won't deny it, even if I don't want to admit it.)
How did you feel about what happened?
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