NEWS: Hundreds Missing in Massive Mudslide

CULTURE: Hundreds Missing in Massive Mudslide

After a year of horrible storms and hurricanes, another disaster has now hit the Philippines, swallowing up an entire village.

The mud, as deep as 30 feet in some places, created problems for rescuers, and relief efforts stopped at nightfall because the mountain continued to shift.

There is some speculation that illegal logging caused the devastating landslide.

as tragic as it is if you ask me its mother nature saying fuckyou again and shell keep doing it until our numbers are culled enough and we have learnt our lesson and start looking after the environment

I agree. But Bush's "Kyoto Lite" shows about how committed to the enviroment this administration is.

Uhhm. Yeah.

I'm sure the 1,800 men women and children are ecstatic that you're using their deaths as a point in your soapboxism.

While I'm Ilocano, and not Visayan, (regions in the Philippines), I have a Visayan friend, and she remembers visiting her mother's island, and how all of the houses were mud huts, except for hers, which was made out of brick. This was in the early 90s.

Resources are scarse, especially in areas outside of Luzon and Mindanao. True: past logging undoubtedly caused this mudslide and the one in 1991. They logged for their economic survival. So the mudslides are a consequence of those actions. Okay.

But had they not logged, how would livings have been made? They were limited in their choices. However, we live in countries with a high environmental consciousness, and large enough populaces of educated and motivated individuals. Granted, America's government is all about the bottom dollar (I don't know about AU's government). But we, as the true representatives of our countries, are given enough freedom to make decisions and take actions to override our governemnts' agendas.

By collectively assembling to assert our influence, we can exact change. Instead of hoping for that one day when "we have learnt our lesson," we must go out and teach that lesson to people who haven't learnt it yet.

Also, I don't know if you got the memo, but the environment doesn't need our looking after. The environment exists without us, and currently it just so happens that it is capable of sustaining human life. If we destroy all of the elements in the environment for us to survive, the environment evolves, but we will die. The environment is not a princess in a tower we need to protect from roaming marauders. The environment is just fine with or without us. What we need to protect is our future ability to live.

Oh, and according to Wikipedia, Leyte has invested quite a bit of time and money into geothermal energy. Not exactly environment raping.

Wow, the guy that talked before me is fucking awesome.

And although I do agree that the environment will just get rid of us if she needs to, I think that we can also make compromises between cutting people off from resources and the ability to live, and not harming the environment. A lot of this has stemmed from lobbyists and corporations taking money and putting it places it doesn't need to be, a war with two countries in the past five years, etc. I'm not saying it's america's fault entirely, but I do think we should act responsibly, say "yeah, we're fucking up" and set a good example for those countries who aren't doing the right thing along with us and just squandering resources and taking advantage of everyone/everything they can.

...That was such a rant.

I bet you're glad that you can say shit like that while cozied into your computer nook, living in something a little more stable than your average mud hut.

Rock on, armchair advocate for...what, exactly? Heaping your own consumer guilt onto the shoulders of mudslide victims? Your comments help nothing.

[Edited on Feb 20, 2006 8:24AM]

What can I do to help the people who lost family in the Phillipines?