Interactive map of Haiti earthquake zone. What Should the Anthropocene Look Like? : Collide-a-Scape. Nearly two decades ago, an environmental historian published a scholarly essay that enraged the environmental community. William Cronon, author of the seminal Changes in the Land (a book that deeply influenced me and many others) and the brilliant (equally influential) Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, began his provocative essay this way: The time has come to rethink wilderness.This will seem a heretical claim to many environmentalists, since the idea of wilderness has for decades been a fundamental tenet—indeed, a passion—of the environmental movement, especially in the United States. For many Americans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth.
It is an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity, the one place we can turn for escape from our own too-muchness. It’s a long, trenchant piece that was first excerpted (clumsily, I believe) in the New York Times magazine. Location and Timing Contribute to Losses in New Zealand Earthquake. Intensity maps from the United States Geological Survey help show why the earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on Tuesday (local time), while substantially weaker than the temblor that struck nearby in September, appears to have been far more damaging and deadly, according to local news accounts.
Timing clearly played a role, as well, with the latest quake striking at 12:51 p.m. local time on a work day. [12:57 a.m. | Updated The latest reports indicate that scores of people were killed.] Here’s the “shake map” for today’s 6.3-magnitude quake, which was centered just six miles east of the city center: Here’s the map of the intensity of the September temblor, showing the strongest forces dozens of miles inland: Here’s my post from September on the mix of factors that determine quake damage and deaths. PAGER - M 7.0 - SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND. Red alert level for economic losses. Extensive damage is probable and the disaster is likely widespread. Estimated economic losses are 0-4% GDP of New Zealand. Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response.
Green alert level for shaking-related fatalities. There is a low likelihood of casualties. PAGER content is automatically generated, and only considers losses due to structural damage. Limitations of input data, shaking estimates, and loss models may add uncertainty. PAGER - M 7.0 - HAITI REGION. Red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread. Past red alerts have required a national or international response. Estimated economic losses are 20-100% GDP of Haiti. PAGER content is automatically generated, and only considers losses due to structural damage. Limitations of input data, shaking estimates, and loss models may add uncertainty. PAGER results are generally available within 30 minutes of the earthquake’s occurrence. However, information on the extent of shaking will be uncertain in the minutes and hours following an earthquake and typically improves as additional sensor data and reported intensities are acquired and incorporated into models of the earthquake's source.
In Earthquakes, Poverty, Population and Motion Matter. David Alexander/NZPA, via Associated PressDean Marshall, left, and Shaun Stockman assessed damage to buildings they own in downtown Christchurch. There are plenty of reasons damage and deaths from the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck near Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday utterly paled compared to the absolute devastation wrought by the 7.0-magnitude quake near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I sent a query about the different outcomes in Christchuch, Haiti (and Chile) to a half dozen engineers and geologists working on earthquake preparedness and design and you can read some of their observations below. Here are some of the main points: - Poverty kills. - Not all earthquakes of the same magnitude have the same destructive force. Ground motion is a critical factor. Below you can compare tables showing the intensity of ground motion in communities around the epicenters in New Zealand and Haiti.
New Zealand: Haiti: John Mander: Christchurch is my home town. Peter Yanev: Kit Miyamoto: Earthquake Rattles Christchurch, New Zealand - Slide Show. New Zealand Earthquake. Haiti Earthquake Multimedia - Interactive Feature. Earthquake Relief Where Haiti Wasn’t Broken. Years After Haiti Quake, Safe Housing Is Dream for Multitudes. Damon Winter/The New York Times A boy inside a new home in rural Leogane, which was the epicenter of the earthquake in Haiti. More Photos » In a hillside community, Terilien Brice, a 63-year-old grievously injured in the earthquake, lives like a shut-in inside his condemned house, which was marked with a red tag that is supposed to mean “no entry,” not no exit. He feels helpless.
Dieu Juste Saint Eloi, 68, in contrast, secured a one-room shelter with plastic sheeting for walls, but his clan of 12 squeezes into it. Unexpectedly, though, his 29-year-old son, William Saint Eloi, hit the housing jackpot. Two and a half years after the earthquake, despite billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, the most obvious, pressing need — safe, stable housing for all displaced people — remains unmet. In what international officials term a protracted humanitarian crisis, hundreds of thousands remain in increasingly wretched tent camps. In Aiding Quake-Battered Haiti, Lofty Hopes and Hard Truths.