Foreward:
The stature and majesty of nature grows with each new scientific discovery. However each question answered, raises many more new questions.
We arrogant humans believe that everything happens in nature because of us and our actions. We forget that the earth has been around for 5,000 million years and we humans for only 5 million years with modern humans for about 30,000 years.
We neither have the power to destroy nor save the earth. If we respect creation then we might only at best be able to save ourselves. The incredible rise of sinkholes should serve as a stark reminder of how insignificant we humans are in the larger scheme of things in Creation.
A sinkhole is a massive hole that suddenly appears. which can be from several feet wide and deep to several miles across and several hundred feet deep. It could occur anywhere in the world.
If you have not heard of sinkholes till now, you may be forgiven. They were until now very rare occurring globally at a rate of less than 1 sinkhole per month before the year 2009.
That has now begun to change dramatically with sinkholes now occurring randomly at an alarming rate of almost one per day without exception in every part of the world.
Traditionally sinkholes were explained by manmade activities where water enters the subsurface from sewers, water lines, and construction. Usually these are caused by tunnelling for metros, mining, oil and gas exploration.
When a sinkhole appears, people jump to blame some organisation or the other, and if they can't find any one they can always blame the government. Actually more of it could be happening because of nature than man.
Scientists however are struggling to explain the incidence of large number of sinkholes occurring in places where there is no water nor soft limestone etc. and no human activity.
There is an incredible rise in the incidence and intensity of earthquakes as data shows.
Statistics of earthquakes of magnitude greater than 6.99 on Richter scale for past 150 years is shown below in 4 periods of 38 years each.
Number of earthquakes
Years 1863 to 1900 .......12
Years 1901 to 1938 ....... 53
Years 1939 to 1976 ........71
Years 1977 to 2014 ...... 190
What can an individual human do to prevent earthquakes and sinkholes?
Nothing, but we can safeguard ourselves, by residing in places relatively safe from the impact of high seismic activity, flooding, landslides etc.
We do not know when the earth will literally give away from beneath our feet. If we remember that life is so short and so transitional then, spiritually, we can love, play, and work shedding all negativity. Rather than demand from, give more of ourselves to our world and prepare to dissolve back into Creation from where we have emerged.
Materially we can prepare ourselves to respond to an emergency,when it occurs. Learn first aid and teach ourselves and our children to be safe by respecting nature and life and learn first aid.
The author also serves as the Honorary Chairman of the Lifesaving Federation of India.
LSFI is an organisation devoted to saving lives and building communities.
Interesting References:
There are numerous instances of where our ancestors advised us on how to, and where to live. Most of this wisdom is geographically local. How to take care, not to be prone to be devastated by floods, droughts, landslides etc.
With advent of modernity, several things have happened.
1. Inappropriate strategy knowledge from far away lands and people is blindly adopted to solve problems which fuel problems.
2. Big government fuels corruption and disconnect between needs and solutions. Problems cannot be solved by an entity who has little or no understanding, appreciation or empathy of local needs.
3. However as demographics change with people migrating to other places, often the wisdom of the past has been lost.
All these are…
Thank you for the right up on sinkholes. We, human beings are destiny's children. However much the science has progressed, we are just helpless against natural disasters. There are many things in life which are not under our control, for example, I can't choose my place of birth. It may be in a seismic zone like the Himalayas. Even if we are not born in such a place, we may have to work in such a place. Assam gets flooded every year devastating the lives of many people. Kerala had unprecedented floods this year. We are at the nature's mercy. It may not even be a natural phenomenon. For example, for no fault of ours, we may be caught in…