What does (or should) one feel when he/she watches on television gruesome pictures of an earthquake or volcano survivors mourning their loved ones or living skeletons of individuals who are victims of starvation or acute hunger? Many of us watch such scenes while eating or chatting with family or friends. The philosophers amongst us wonder why these things happen in the first place. The religious-minded would probably say it’s divine punishment.
Actually, many people dwell on such unfortunate events. and start meditating on life. Such meditation could lead to devotion just as it could lead to unbelief. But what could (or should) be learned from such calamities in which thousands of people lose their lives and thousands more are left maimed, orphaned, widowed or homeless; where whole towns and villages are flattened; where paradisiacal landscapes are turned into desolate places? Well, that has always been horrible. People who are safe and sound, ensconced in their warm armchairs, could moralize as much and as long as they wished -but would they say the same thing (in the same words, in the same tones, with the same strength of conviction) if they were in the midst of the disaster?
I remember seeing a programme featuring Australia’s tropical forests. The TV cameras moved gracefully among breathtaking trees, beautiful native flowers, exotic birds and animals. I thought there couldn’t be a more tempting place for a holiday. But then suddenly a hellish fire broke out and destroyed all the trees, the flowers, the birds and the animals. I sighed as the voice commenting the scene explained that such fires were sort of commonplace in these forests, and that it was a very natural phenomenon. It was good of the programme to give that warning to nature-loving tourists and that lesson to those who easily succumb to beauty. Unfortunately, natural phenomena cannot all be predicted. So many tourists (from all over the world) died in Tsunami in December 2004. No one -least of all the local people- could have predicted such a catastrophe. People -then and as always- asked a lot of (existential) questions. Some made some kind of change, others continued to live their lives as if nothing had happened. Personally, I do ask questions too. I read on the Web a question I had asked myself even before the Internet entered our country. Were WWI and WWII divine punishment? That was the question. I wondered why such a thing happened to people who were behind all the incredible technological development whose fruits we enjoy in our everyday life. Those people made great inventions, worked in coal mines, struggled for human rights, etc, etc. So why were they rewarded with two bloody wars? The curious thing is that during these two wars (and the subsequent Cold War) a phenomenal technological development took place -as if our (civilian) planes today couldn’t have been able to fly as far and fast as they do today, as if our mobile phones, Internet connections, televisions, etc, could have remained topics of science-fiction books, hadn’t there been two devastating (world) wars. The United Nations was born only after those wars. Democracy became widespread only after those wars, which claimed the lives of the children and grand-children of great inventors, engineers, teachers and patient workers who endured life in coal mines. Would it be superstitious to link that to the so-called separation of religion and state (as was the case in France in 1905)? Or would that be explained by people’s “increasing immorality”? (Some would argue, though, that “real immorality” became even worse in 1968, more than two decades after the War!) Others would argue that the War(s) had rather come as a result of then big powers’ struggle for supremacy and their rivalry over overseas territories. Whatever the reasons of this or that calamity, it’s never bad to ask questions about it.
Very often -but not always- it’s people who came within an inch of death in such disasters who DON’T ask the hardest questions, such as, “Why should there be such a thing in the first place?” I was moved by the story of a German young woman and her mother who happened to be in Sri Lanka during Tsunami. In a programme aired on Alarabiya TV, the young woman explained how a Sri Lankan young man had saved her, risking his own life. The young man himself spoke while the two women -who had come back to Sri Lanka to meet him and remember the incident- listened, their heads bowed in thought. This unexpected friendship is an instance of the paradoxically wonderful things that do happen during and in the aftermath of disasters. But the question remains, though: why should there be such a thing in the first place?
In other words, could there be a good side to disaster? Are earthquakes, hurricanes, cyclones, volcanoes, forest fires, floods, etc., just natural accidents that happen at random and spoil people’s lives? Even if scientists, who started developing serious theories about this only in the 1960s, proved through empirical evidence that the above-mentioned are essential to the overall equilibrium of the planet Earth, still some would ask, “Why should the Earth need such disasters just to ensure its equilibrium?" Those who would like “to settle a score” with God would ask, “If God is perfect, then why did He create such an imperfect earth? Why should a population in one part of the globe be callously sacrificed in order to save populations elsewhere?"
I don’t pretend to have answers to these questions. But let’s see things as they are.
The earth may not be perfect, but what would one say of those tourists who wait a whole year and spend a lot of money to get to a place? Why do they choose to go to a particular place rather than another? Do tourists go to heavenly places or to hellish corners of the globe?
Besides, scientists say, for example, that “most earthquakes cause little or no damage”. They also say that “most volcanic activity is submarine, forming new seafloors” -far away from our cities and villages.
So the “imperfection”, if any, was rather man-made. Scientists say “man-made pollution is largely to blame for global warming”, which, in turn, is responsible for at least some of such disasters as Katrina (2005) and tincreasingly frequent, wildfires in North America and flooding in Western Europe, in central China and elsewhere. Otherwise, why should there be The Paris Agreement and all conventions on climate?
The poor are now begging the rich to stop polluting the earth (thereby causing drought, floods, cyclones, El Niño and other disasters), whereas the rich are begging the poor to accept money in exchange for The Right to Pollute in their own countries. What logic!
So whether the earth is not perfect or whether it’s man who made it so imperfect, it’s never too late for man to try and make it perfect -or as perfect as possible. All the alarming scientific reports that come out from time to time are really only aimed at pushing politicians to act.
In normal times, one would find heavenly places all over the world. Otherwise, why should there be tourists? If many foreign tourists happened to be in South-East Asia during Tsunami (2004) it’s because they had been attracted to the beauty of that region.
Even after a place is totally destroyed in a disaster, man is always there to do something about it. This leads to talk about solidarity. Most recently, wildfires have ravaged Italy’s Sardinia region. Who’s going to help this devastated island recover if not Italian tax-payers?
When we speak of solidarity we also mean charity, compassion, altruism, volunteering to help for love, not money. When you see people from all walks of life rushing to help each other ; when you see thousands of students donating blood and running to the most affected areas to save lives, that is solidarity. Who will ever forget the help that the international community provided (or at least pledged to provide) to the Tsunami victims or the Syrian refugees or the current endeavours to help poor states with anti-Covid vaccination?
Of corse, all men are not alike. While world war-mongers are swearing at and fighting one another, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent join forces to save people of different faiths and origins. What matters is to put out the fire, no matter who started it.
When you learn that 200 rescue workers lost their lives as they were trying to help their fellow citizens in China (in May 2008), and many teachers died in the disaster after having saved their students, then you can only feel proud of being a human being. We humans are capable of making the world a better place -by serving one another.
Compare that solidarity shown by people from within and without the places affected by disasters to the looting that sometimes takes place in disaster-hit areas. Compare that solidarity to the rivalries that led to WWI and WWII. Compare the bloodshed of those wars to the spirit that led to the European Union. Definitely, man is capable of the best and the worst.
And what is more beautiful man can do than rebuilding shattered lives? Destruction is no doubt horrific. The repercussions may last for years and cost gold and life. But that’s part of life. What we tend to forget is that most destruction is man-made. Natural disasters had no hand in the unbelievable destruction that occurred in the heart of Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Natural disasters have had no hand in the destruction that has taken place in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, for example,
Practical-minded people get down to work at once to repair the destruction, leaving to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Sometimes the destructors themselves rush to reconstruction. The U.S., who helped bring down Hitler’s Reich and Japan’s empire, put in place the Marshall Plan to rebuild postwar Europe and Japan. A thriving Baby boomer generation enjoyed the fruits of that reconstruction, thus turning the page on the horrors of the War their fathers had witnessed. "The misfortune of some makes the happiness of others,” as the French proverb goes.
After every disaster, many people get a lot of work, a steady income for years. A lot of companies thrive during this period and a lot of trade takes place. Not only those demolished schools, but the whole (old) infrastructure becomes much better than before the earthquake. This gives the opportunity to newly graduated engineers and technicians to prove their worth and build their lives and to SMEs and VSEs to grow.
Now, what about divine punishment? Well, divine punishment means different things to different believers. Jews, Christians and Muslims, for example, know the story of Noah, according to which the world then was destroyed by the Flood. But then life went on with just a small number of people and a limited number of species. The God who made life possible after the flood is naturally capable of saving the planet earth from the worst consequences of climate change, if he wills. Whether He willss it or not probably depends on how humanity behaves. Hence the fear of divine punishment for some. The Quran, for example, is full of warnings in this sense.
Divine punishment or not, a growing number of young people are suffering from various forms and degrees of Climate Anxiety. They are deeply concerned not only about the future of the planet Earth, but more particularly about their immediate environment. Some simply believe that our planet is doomed, "on the brink". The fact is that extreme weather conditions are undeniable. We have all heard or read alarming reports from experts predicting the worst for certain part of the globe.
But tell that to those people who go to seek their fortune where the environment is most hostile, where illegal wildlife trade thrives, illegal logging, illegal mining, illegal fishing… where there are no schools, no hospitals, or even paved roads… where smilng means nothing.
Details abound. Who is not aware of the submerged coasts with all the consequences that this implies, of the rising waters that are threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, of the scary wild dumps in many cities around the world? Of course there is cause for alarm. And you have people suffocating in the heat wave in the middle of spring, people who see their animals die of thirst before their eyes, goats which eat their excrement, camels which eat other camels, seasides which disappear under water each day a little more, non-renewable groundwater, dry or almost dry wells…? It is not easy to be mentally strong in the face of such misfortunes. But sometimes all it takes is rain, good weather, a good harvest... to lift your spirits and feel good. Except that, when one has everything, he could imagine himself touched by divine grace. Certainly, this happens in one's head, not only in nature.
But it's not just the consequences of climate change. Today, many people live in terror because of gangs or food insecurity. People eat every other day. Some big cities in safe countries import more than 90% of their food needs. In other cities 80% of the population lives solely from tourism. What would happen when the tourists don't come? And for those who depend on rain-fed agriculture, what if it doesn't rain? Right now uncontrolled urbanization is swallowing up uncountable irreplaceable agricultural land. It is reported that antibiotic resistance will kill 300 million people by 2050. But all this is not so new. In my country, Morocco, in the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a famine or an epidemic every 10 or 15 years! I don't know what might happen in the future, but, att least, in almost 60 years, there has been only one epidemic, it's Covid-19, and only one "famine", it was in the 1980s. In addition, we are slowly but surely moving towards an increasingly decarbonizes atmosphere, with the use of renewable energies, electric batteries, etc. All this to say, there’s still room for hope.
That's unfortunately not always the case, though. In any event, we will continue to see fires, for example, ravaging centuries-old trees that may never be replaced. Many people will also lose their livelihoods in the process. The same goes for earthquakes and floods. Insurance companies are not prepared to cover everything for everyone. But that's what a disaster is. We are not in Heaven. A disaster remains a painful experience -whether it is natural or not, whether it is divine punishment or not. The right question to ask is: What if I was among the victims?
