A DANGEROUS TREND:

by Arina Basbayeva

Have you followed all that has happened environmentally since the start of the year? Well, I will remind you of devastating events that occurred worldwide and have affected hundreds of thousands of people. Most of you have probably heard of the Turkey-Syria earthquake. Those countries were not the only ones traumatized by mother nature.

On February 6th, at 4:17 am, Turkish and Syrian citizens were awoken by a real-life nightmare. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 occurred in southern Turkey which was followed by another with a magnitude of 7.5 and more than 1,900 aftershocks. At least 13 million citizens were impacted. “It was bad; my city has been destroyed. My parents, fortunately, didn’t die, but many friends did,” said Aaron from one of the impacted cities. Turkey is earthquake-prone due to its location on the Anatolian, Arabian, and African tectonic plates, which move in opposite directions. A local shop owner said, “We knew that we lived in an earthquake zone. It’s not fate. People are to blame for making weak buildings.” The current death toll is more than 50,000 but is not yet official because experts are still not sure of all the damage caused.

Two weeks later, on February 19th, Sao Paolo was hit with a wave of showers resulting in floods and landslides. An estimated 24 inches of rain fell each day which continued for multiple weeks. As this coincided with Carnival, festivities were cancelled and a declaration of mourning was issued for 3 days. More than 1,000 people, regular citizens and official rescue teams (firefighters, police, etc), participated in the search for victims. The total death toll is about 60 but more than 4,000 people lost their homes.

In mid-February, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins declared “climate change is real” as floods, cyclones, and earthquakes caused the third-ever national emergency declaration. Tens of thousands of landslides affected over a third of the population and hundreds were evacuated. Earthquakes ranging from 5.7 - 6.3 magnitudes hit the coast which were followed by Cyclone Gabrielle, a storm that brought over 16 inches of rain, resulting in about 11 deaths and thousands still missing.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the globe, over 233 tornadoes struck the US. These events cause economic damage in the millions, as well as the human cost. After 9 fatalities in Alabama and Georgia, President Biden approved disaster declarations. The US has tried to reduce casualties by creating a tornado watch and warning system and public sirens.

Turkey is not the only country devastated by recent earthquakes. On November 21st, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck the mountainous Cianjur region of Indonesia’s Java Island. “Hundreds of aftershocks were felt and hampered recovery efforts,” said one observer. This earthquake was felt as far out as Jakarta. Around 2 million people were affected and many were trapped and swept away in landslides. Around 340 people died and over 2,000 were injured. Many victims were children, as this took place during school hours, as well as the elderly and disabled who were more vulnerable than the men working in the fields. Earthquakes have been frequent in this area due Indonesia’s position on the borders of 3 major tectonic plates.

The regularity and devastation of these natural disasters is cause for concern. Are we heading towards an irreversible trend of climate danger? Are we already there?