SE Asia Tsunami Disaster (Split #1)

[SpiraLethe]

As much as I'm for enviromental conservation, that sounds a bit ridiculous.

[Hyperion]

I remember when I was watching CNN a few days ago and saw the most spectacular footage so far, at least. There was a tourist standing next to the beach with his camcorder focused out into the ocean. There were three warships out there on patrol, I guess, and a few mile behind those warships was this wall of water approaching, and it stretched as far as the eye could see both left and right. The film ended when the guy with the camcorder realizes the true size and power of what's approaching and begins to flee, but just before he does that and turns off his camcorder, there's a breif moment you can see one of the warships get smashed by the approaching wave.

I don't know how many of you are aware of what a Tsunami really is. It's not like one of those waves you see those surfers surfing on. It's just a huge, straight wall of water about 18 miles high coming towards you at hundreds of miles per hour. Imagine it. Someone about to get smashed in it would have a powerful feeling of intense fear and great admiration. Admiration because of the wave's size and power. It's a site you'd never see again. For those who watch science fiction, it's like a fan of the genre would say: "something out of a sci-fi film". Except it's real.

[SpiraLethe]

It's just a huge, straight wall of water about 18 miles high coming towards you at hundreds of miles per hour.

18 miles high? Tsunamis are huge, but not that huge.

[Hyperion]

That's why I said "about". I'm not exactly sure, though I believe I heard on the news that it was 30 km, which would translate to about said amount of miles in height. I might have heard wrong, though. I'm not a very good listener. But having been formed by an earthquake that topped 9.0-9.1 on the richter scale, it seems believable to me. Probably meant horizontally.

I must be wrong, yeah. Sorry. What was the true height?

[SpiraLethe]

It must've been 30 m and not km. If it was km, then that tsunami would've been in another atmospheric layer!

[Hyperion]

I realized how ridiculous I sounded stating that the Tsunami wave was 30 km vertical. ^^; Tsunami wave that length in height would have definetely been a sight among sights.

[SpiraLethe]

Even 30 m is pretty damn huge. Anyway, I looked it up. It was 10 m and 30 ft.

[ChromeFox]

Im not completey sure that picture is real. It may just be my eyes, as it certainly appears genuine, but several of those people appear to be smiling and laughing.

Either that, or people just didnt realise the danger they were in. Sad really.

Well, someone could submit it to Snopes and see what they say.

EDIT: Spoke too soon, they already have them. They aren't photoshopped, though, just an entirely different incident: the flooding of the Qian Tang Jiang River, in Hangzhou, China.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/tsunami.asp

[on_diet_cat]

Most of these affected area are tourist spot, so people will be equiped with cameras. Not surprising if we get to see a lot of shots like this.

Another picture from India.

[CSK]

Also, I read this, but it's on paper, not from a site, so I'll quote it:

Environmental activists are shamelessly trying to exploit the earthquake-tsunami catastrophe in hopes of advancing their global warming and anti-development agendas.

Two days after the tragedy, the executive director of Greenpeace UK told British newspaper The Independant, "No one can ignore the relentless increase in extreme weather events and so-called natural disasters, which in reality are no more natural than a plastic Christmas tree."

..."Here again are yet more events in the real world that are consisten with the climate change predictions." ... "We can expect in the coming years similar events happening as a result of global warming and therefore help and prevention are the responsibility of the Northern countries as well."

Exploitation of tragedy is a sport played not only by environmentalists.

Insurer Munich Re used the event as an opportunity to renew its call for action to fight global warming, which the insurance industry has recently started to blame for natural disasters.

...((bunch of facts about tectonics ))

... WHile tectonics may cause climate changes, the reverse is not true.

Despite the fictional tsunami that hit New York in the movie The Day After Tomorrow, there is no realistic climate change scenario that could possibly cause a tsunami-spawning earthquake.

Environmentalists are also looking to blame economic development for the devastation wreaked by the tsunamis in hopes of slowing down progress in the third world.

"A creeping rise in sea levels tied to global warming, pollution, and damage to coral reefs may make coastlines even more vulnerable to disasters like tsunamis or storms in future, experts said," reported Reuters this week. "Coasts are under threat in many countries," said... "Development of roads, shrimp farms, ribbon development along coasts and tourism are eroding natural defences in Asia.

Actually, sea levels in the region have been declining, according to satellite data and the long-term record of sea level changes for Bombay. ...

Given that fact, how deceptive and calculating of the environmentalists to blame 'development' as the deadly cause!

It's bad enough that environmentalists continually try to advance their agendas based on what can only be described as comically wrong information. But what's really troubling is that they seem hell-bent on denying poor nations the opportunity to develop economically so as to pull themselves out of their abject poverty.

Global warming activists are pressuring western banks to not make loans to energy projects in the developing world. Without energy, Third World economies are doomed to remain undeveloped. Citigroup and Bank of America have already caved-in to activist demands, ...

Malaria is yet another threat that tsunami survivors will face. Yet the environmentalist-led, junk science-fuelled ban on the insecticide DDT has had, and will continue to have, terrible human and economic impacts on the developing world.
...

The tsunamis are a terrible natural disaster -- but they are made worse by the not-so-natural disaster known as modern environmentalism.

SOrry that it's so long, the '...' are the stuff that wasn't so important to type heh. And sorry if there are any typos, I was typing as quickly as I could, hehe.

Those environmentalists... This article (from National Post) plain shocked me. An earthquake... NOT being natural??? Yeah, right. Pretty sad, if you ask me.

But I'm very happy, because my school is doing a fundraiser, (I'm helping, phwee!^^*) and we're giving it to the red cross, but since it's more, the government has to match it! Very happy about that, and I'm hoping that my school raises a lot of money!

Okay, I hate to break it to you, but the whole story about Greenpeace suggesting that the tsunami was a result of global warming is a complete and utter lie.

Refer to these sites for futher information:
PR Watch
Info Pollution
News Article

I also note that the article you mentioned is actually one written by the a science correspondence for Fox News (refer to the article in full here). I would be highly suspicious of any article this man writes, and I would suggest you take anything he says with a pinch of salt

[Ammer]

Here's an update on the donations:

762 Million by Australia in grants and loans
300-500 Million by Russia
3 Million so far collected by Toronto, Canada

4 Billion collected worldwide

I can't believe Australia is expecting money back. Honestly, just donate what you can.

[Asparagus Queen]

I'm glad everyone's donating, but it seems like this whole thing is turning into a competition between people and countries. 'I can donate more than you' 'Oh yeah, well I'll up my donation!'... It's very disturbing. Donations are great, but some of these numbers are just getting bragged over.

Also, since the earthquake was known about, why didn't they prepare or leave? The government had been told about the 'quake, and nothing got done before hand... They could have at least told the people not to hang out on the beach. I know the water went miles inland, but to be out on the beach watching...

[Ammer]

Also, since the earthquake was known about, why didn't they prepare or leave? The government had been told about the 'quake, and nothing got done before hand... They could have at least told the people not to hang out on the beach. I know the water went miles inland, but to be out on the beach watching...

This might be the reason,

I believe somewhere in America there was an earthquake warning. They projected it to be 6+ on the Rictor Scale (sp?) and the city was evacutated. It turned out that the earthquake was very small and did very little damage. The city/government lost millions on it. That's why they don't warn people.

I believe that may have happened in those countries. Perhaps they thought it would be a small one and perhaps they couldn't afford to warn everyone and have people evacuate.

[Charisma]

I was questioning the reality of it too, also, why would any stop to take a picture when a wave that size is going to crush anything of that size.

"Wow! Honey, come check this out!"
"Can you see the big wave, Sweetheart?"
"Dude lets get closer!"
"Something to tell the Grandkids"
"I bet I can sell this tape to CNN"

Its not quite carcrash mentality. But its close...

Well, looking at the picture, it looks like it was zoomed in on from a far distance, just maybe. My first impression was (s)he was within remarkable distance.

Yeah that's what I thought too, it's very possible that it's just zoomed it. I don't know about the motion disruption on it though that looks funny however that would explain the look of smiles on their faces.

[Rachel]

Here's an update on the donations:

762 Million by Australia in grants and loans
300-500 Million by Russia
3 Million so far collected by Toronto, Canada

4 Billion collected worldwide

I can't believe Australia is expecting money back. Honestly, just donate what you can.

australia aren't just giving loans and grants, they're giving a hell of a lot of donations too, it's all over the news here.