Major Environment Disasters and Campaigns in 2010

Jan. 3, 2011 - PRLog -- Be it the raging fires in Russia, ravaging floods in Pakistan or the heavy snowfall in Europe, government machinery was drastically ill-prepared when it came to handling such situations. What had been astounding in all these incidents was the magnitude of impact that required a massive scaling-up of rescue efforts.

The heat wave that dominated the Northern hemisphere caused severe climatic conditions leading to the forest fires in Russia. The cold snap in Europe believed to have been caused by the arctic oscillations brought life to a standstill. The floods in Pakistan were the worst in nearly a century. Caused due to heavy monsoon rains, nearly a fifth of the country was under water. While these incidents did give some time for authorities to react, an incident at Leh, a high altitude town in the Himalaya region, virtually did not give any response time. Landslides caused by a cloudburst virtually swept the entire town leaving little chance of any rescue attempt.

In Russia, the government thought it better to play down the forest fires by censoring vital information. While some criticize this action suggesting that timely sharing of information could have helped in limiting the damages and causalities, the government holds that this was done to prevent panic. Forest fires are not unusual in Russia but still there is much to be done to frame a proper fire-fighting policy and a mechanism for timely response. This would need lot of awareness among people about forest fires. Also, the role of media needs to be redefined as it should play a proactive role. This incident drives home a point that climate change impacts would be much severe than the ‘usual’ events we have been witnessing over time.

To read about the major events and campaigns in detail visit http://thinktosustain.com/marketspace/2010-heat-wave-reco...

To read the article "Of Fire, Floods and Oil - The Environmental Chaos of 2010", visit http://www.thinktosustain.com/infocusdetails.aspx?id=154

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