Desastres naturales (Continuación)

Those who know a little of Haiti’s history might have watched the news last night and thought, as I did for a moment: “An earthquake? What next? Poor Haiti is cursed.”

But while earthquakes are acts of nature, extreme vulnerability to earthquakes is manmade. And the history of Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters — to floods and famine and disease as well as to this terrible earthquake — is long and complex, but the essence of it seems clear enough.

Haiti is a country created by former slaves, kidnapped West Africans, who, in 1804, when slavery still flourished in the United States and the Caribbean, threw off their cruel French masters and created their own republic.…  Seguir leyendo »

As I write, we don't know the extent of the damage wrought by the earthquake that rocked the coast of Haiti on Tuesday. But a tragic number of people have been killed or injured, and early estimates indicate that nearly 3 million people -- almost a third of Haiti's population-- may need aid, making this one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas.

I met with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday and with other key U.N. leaders to discuss Haiti's immediate and long-term needs. Those who are still alive under the rubble must be found.…  Seguir leyendo »

An earthquake of magnitude seven would be devastating for any country. In the wake of such force, death and destruction is tragically inevitable. However, the repercussions for Haiti, this small ill-fated Caribbean country, will be worse than almost anywhere else in the world, because of the long-term political, economic and cultural context that surrounds today's natural disaster.

There is a story often told among Haitians that when the Spanish came to Hispaniola (the small island shared between the Dominican Republic and Haiti) they surrendered Haiti to the devil in order to dedicate the Dominican Republic to God. When you consider their relative situations it is not hard to see why this myth is so commonly believed.…  Seguir leyendo »

We awoke on Tuesday morning to the house shaking. Earthquakes in this part of the world usually last for a minute or two. But this time the house shook for five minutes. The children and I left our beds and ran outside to the clearing in front of our house, where our neighbors had already gathered. Then just as suddenly as it had started, everything became quiet, and we went back inside.

I packed up my three boys and drove them to school. Just after I’d dropped them at the gate and was heading to my office, I turned on the radio.…  Seguir leyendo »

L'histoire semble tragiquement se répéter en Grèce, avec, pour l'instant heureusement, des conséquences moins dramatiques que les incendies de l'été 2007 : des dizaines de morts s'ajoutaient alors aux milliers de maisons anéanties, aux centaines de milliers d'hectares de forêts, de cultures, de vignes et d'oliviers détruits par les flammes, et au site sacré d'Olympie menacé.

Mais ici, c'est la capitale, le coeur du système social et spatial du pays qui est atteint, renvoyant déjà le Parthénon au rougeoiement inquiétant des montagnes enflammées plus qu'à l'écrin de verre et d'acier du nouveau musée de l'Acropole inauguré en juin. Sur la terre méditerranéenne, où la beauté côtoie toujours la tragédie, le feu apporte sa touche prométhéenne de fureur dévastatrice infernale.…  Seguir leyendo »

Given a choice between their worldview and the facts, it's always interesting how many people toss the facts. Right now, the United States is plagued by an army of "birthers" who claim that because Barack Obama was not really born in America, he's not legitimately president. Their evidence is non-existent, their arguments loopy, but people who find our non-white president unacceptable would rather scour the Hawaiian medical records system and invent bizarre theories than face their own internal turmoil. Or racism.

What people were willing to believe about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans four years ago is a more serious matter.…  Seguir leyendo »

El lunes por la tarde se declaró un incendio forestal en el municipio de Horta de Sant Joan, comarca de la Terra Alta. Ayer por la tarde, este incendio aún ardía con una dinámica y unas condiciones más que preocupantes, y lo más grave es que ya se ha tenido que lamentar la pérdida de vidas humanas.

En este momento sería absolutamente precipitado e imprudente valorar de forma concreta la evolución o incluso la causa y los efectos del incendio forestal de Els Ports. Aun así, en estos momentos de incertidumbre es bueno recordar por qué unos medios de extinción más que preparados, con un número de dotaciones terrestres y aéreas suficientemente importantes, no pueden dar abasto.…  Seguir leyendo »

"L'Aquila? Where's that?"

I've heard that question countless times over the past 20 years, since I left Italy for graduate school and made my life in the United States.

I can't bring myself to tell the questioners that I'm from Rome, although that would simplify things considerably. So I explain that I come from a small town 70 miles east of the Italian capital, northeast to be precise, and no, it's not Florence. "L'Aquila" -- that's L-apostrophe -- means "the eagle," and like an eagle's nest, the city is high in the mountains. Not far from town is the tallest peak of the Apennines; if you climb it on a clear day, you can see the Tyrrhenian Sea on one side, the Adriatic gleaming on the other.…  Seguir leyendo »

In the aftermath of the earthquake at L’Aquila, Italy, on Monday that killed nearly 300 people, splashy headlines suggested that these victims didn’t have to die.

An Italian researcher, Giampaolo Giuliani, began to sound alarm bells a month earlier, warning that an earthquake would strike near L’Aquila on March 29. The prediction was apparently based on anomalous radon gas concentrations in the air; the region had also experienced a number of small tremors starting in mid-January. Mr. Giuliani was denounced for inciting panic by Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, and he was forced to take his warning off the Web after March 29 came and went without significant activity.…  Seguir leyendo »

The wolves came at night, crazed by the scent of lost sheep without shepherds and bodies buried beneath the rubble. In the early hours of Jan. 13, 1915, an earthquake had rocked the rugged Abruzzo region of Italy. In Pescina, birthplace of the writer Ignazio Silone, 3,500 of the town’s 5,000 residents had perished in a matter of 30 seconds.

Among the dead were Silone’s beloved mother, whose body he dug from the rubble with his own hands. After several days of desperate labor, the 14-year-old Silone freed his only surviving family member, a younger brother.

In a twist of fate that surprised no one, the only house left undamaged was uninhabited.…  Seguir leyendo »

Los incendios forestales en Australia han dejado devastación y decenas de víctimas. Aquí estamos en invierno. Es un buen momento para hablar de incendios, dado que la mejor manera de apagarlos es evitándolos y aprendiendo de los errores.

Ante un incendio forestal se superponen dos culturas, dos maneras de vivirlo y dos estrategias defensivas. Los unos, mayoritariamente agricultores, están organizados en Agrupaciones de Defensa Forestal (ADF), conectados permanentemente por radio u otros medios telemáticos, en estado de permanente alerta en temporada de riesgo. Una vez declarado el incendio, acuden --coordinados con los bomberos-- con todos los medios posibles a atacarlo. La inmediatez de su respuesta y la aportación de su esfuerzo personal suelen ser decisivas para que el fuego quede controlado antes de que alcance mayores dimensiones y haga ya muy complicada su extinción.…  Seguir leyendo »

The day after the great fire burned through central Victoria, I drove from Sydney to Melbourne. Smoke obscured the horizon, entering my air-conditioned car and carrying with it that distinctive scent so strongly signifying death, or, to Aboriginal people, cleansing.

It was as if a great cremation had taken place. I didn't know then how many people had died in their cars and homes, or while fleeing, but by the time I reached the scorched ground just north of Melbourne, the dreadful news was trickling in. Australia has suffered its worst recorded peacetime loss of life. And the trauma will be with us for ever.…  Seguir leyendo »

Fire is an essential element in the life cycle of Australian forests. Season by season sclerophyll or “hard-leaved” woodlands build up huge amounts of detritus, shed leaves, bark and twiggery, which must burn if there is to be new growth. Many Australian species, including most of the eucalypts, need fire if they are to complete their reproductive cycle. Seeds encased in woody receptacles need their capsules to be split by fire before they can be released to germinate.

For 40 or maybe 60 millennia, Aboriginal peoples managed fire proactively, setting alight woodland, scrubland and grassland, so that they could pass freely, so that game was driven towards them, so that fresh green herbage was available.…  Seguir leyendo »

Si hace unos años nos hubieran dicho que los fenómenos meteorológicos y sus consecuencias monopolizarían la actualidad política del país, no lo habríamos creído. En septiembre de 1962, cuando hubo las inundaciones del Baix Llobregat, las autoridades franquistas escondieron su responsabilidad bajo una gran campaña de solidaridad ciudadana hacia las víctimas. Más de 30 años después, el gran incendio de la Catalunya central en 1994 se saldó con enormes pérdidas económicas y paisajísticas, pero sin víctimas políticas.

Sin embargo, hoy resulta evidente que las catástrofes naturales condicionan la vida cotidiana de las personas, y que intervienen de forma directa en su apreciación de los diversos órganos de gobierno y opciones políticas.…  Seguir leyendo »

Seguimos reaccionando de la manera más fácil ante una catástrofe: señalar siempre a los políticos y a la Administración como culpables de todo. Las acusaciones son infinitas: desde no advertir con la suficiente publicidad de la probabilidad del peligro, hasta no dar orden de prohibir toda actividad al aire libre. Se ha repetido durante el vendaval del pasado fin de semana, sin que, por ejemplo, se haya subrayado que dos de las víctimas mortales que se han sumado al número de fallecidos por el vendaval, se deben a que estaban en el balcón de su casa. Por otro lado, la exigencia de que debieron suspenderse las actividades al aire libre podía comportar otro riesgo, como se ha visto en la fatalidad de los niños de Sant Boi.…  Seguir leyendo »

Abstract

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar, dentro del ámbito de la intervención de las Fuerzas Armadas en situaciones de catástrofe o emergencia, las funciones como organismo de Protección Civil, como unidad militar y como posible instrumento de la acción exterior del Estado, de la Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME). Ello permitirá conocer los puntos fuertes y débiles, las ventajas y los inconvenientes que ha tenido la creación de esta Unidad Militar de Emergencias, así como la posibilidad de que pudiera intervenir en emergencias o catástrofes en el extranjero, de forma individual o en el marco de una organización internacional (la UE en particular).…  Seguir leyendo »

En estos días se cumplen diez años del paso del huracán Mitch. Durante tres semanas el Mitch asoló Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador y Guatemala, dejando atrás al menos 10.000 muertos, más de un millón y medio de damnificados, y daños económicos incalculables. Se estima que a raíz del paso de este huracán, el PIB de los países afectados se redujo un 40%, restando 20 años a su nivel de desarrollo.

Alguien puede preguntarse por qué recordar ahora lo que ocurrió hace diez años. Hay miles de razones para no olvidar aquella tragedia, pero sin duda, tenemos una que considero especialmente importante: la de dar las gracias a la sociedad española por su generosidad y su solidaridad con la gente que sufrió las consecuencias del Mitch.…  Seguir leyendo »

En los últimos tiempos es habitual la coincidencia en el terreno de agencias civiles y fuerzas militares en operaciones humanitarias, especialmente tras desastres naturales graves como el tsunami que arrasó las costas del Océano Índico en 2004. Una coincidencia que plantea cuestiones de coordinación, de uso efectivo de medios militares, de respeto a los principios humanitarios, etc. Las Fuerzas Armadas (FAS) españolas han participado de esta tendencia, al igual que las de los países de nuestro entorno. Este informe examina los marcos (nacionales e internacionales) relevantes para la participación militar en la asistencia ante desastres naturales graves, así como las lecciones y conclusiones de casos como el mencionado tsunami o el terremoto de Pakistán de 2005.…  Seguir leyendo »

Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba this month with 140-mph winds, just shy of being a Category 5 storm as Hurricane Katrina was. The most severe hurricane to hit Cuba in 50 years, it has displaced more than 400,000 Cubans and damaged or destroyed more than 130,000 homes. Agriculture in the western province of Pinar del Rio has been virtually wiped out. Fidel Castro himself said that Pinar del Rio resembles Hiroshima after it was bombed. This week, Hurricane Ike barreled down the length of the island, making landfall twice, damaging more than 27,000 homes and killing at least four people.

The damage to Cuba's economy from Gustav alone will be much worse proportionately than what the United States suffered after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.…  Seguir leyendo »

Tropical Storm Hanna has wreaked havoc on Haiti, a nation already ravaged by disease, food shortages, near-constant violence and extreme poverty. Already, reports suggest that the damage and death toll will exceed that of 2004's Hurricane Jeanne, which killed at least 3,000.

Gonaives and surrounding villages in west-central Haiti are under six to 10 feet of water in places. At least 150,000 Haitians have been displaced; few vehicles can operate; and there is very little access to drinking water, food and shelter. Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike is pouring down even more rain.

The damage merely compounds the already extreme conditions in Haiti.…  Seguir leyendo »