Sixteen years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of Louisiana, as well as parts of Mississippi and Alabama. When it reached shore, Katrina was a major Category 3 storm, strong enough to take nearly 2,000 lives and break the protective walls preventing Lake Pontchartrain from flooding much of New Orleans.
Disasters, both natural and man-made, force us to look each other in the eye. But the only way to get close in a good way is to do it consciously.
After the storm, meteorologists and other experts explained that a hurricane like Katrina happens once every 100 years. But last Sunday, 16 years after that, Hurricane Ida hit the same spot on the same day. Again, the city of New Orleans and much of Louisiana were affected. By the time Ida hit Louisiana, it had strengthened to a Category 4 out of 5 storm.
Natural disasters have become more frequent. What to do? The first and most important lesson to be learned from the misleading “once every 100 years” conclusion is that time is accelerating, and we simply do not have decades to plan for the next disaster. We must act now!
There have always been fires, and there have always been hurricanes in America, and there have always been tsunamis in Asia. This is how the biosphere works. In recent years, however, the ferocity and frequency of events has been unprecedented, and people will no longer be able to live in areas affected by such intense and recurring disasters. As the area affected by natural disasters grows each year and the recurrence of “100-year” hurricanes increases, we must think boldly and act decisively to stop the next impending cataclysm.
Don’t blame science if you’re not right in the head! First, we must recognize that humanity itself is the cause of the disasters that haunt us. Science has already recognized that human behavior toward nature is damaging to nature, and therefore to us. Nevertheless, this observation did not change anything because people could not change their behavior. To change it, we must transform what motivates people to behave selfishly.
The more interdependent the world becomes, the harder it is to rush to the top without suffering “blows” from nature. At the same time, in human nature there is a desire to stand out, to be on top of the world. So the only way out is to learn to see achievements other than the current, self-centered ones as a realization of one’s potential.
The world has everything it needs to thrive. The problem is that humanity does not distribute abundance properly, but over-consumes what it has. Someone throws away the excess, polluting the planet. Someone at the same time starves others by denying them supplies because he enjoys watching others suffer.
This behavior has nothing to do with burning fossil fuels or polluting drinking water. Our problems arise only because of malice, and that is the main cause of suffering in our world. Consequently, changing ill-will, namely human nature, must be our top priority.
We cannot cause change by force. Mankind has already tried to make revolutions in every way possible, from the extreme left to the extreme right, and what happened? There is bloodshed and suffering everywhere. If we want people to have a good life, we need to teach ourselves and all of society to realize that we are all interconnected and dependent on each other, and that our happiness depends on the happiness of everyone else.
Disasters, both natural and man-made, bring us back to connect with one another. But it is better not to wait for them, but to create this relationship consciously.
Since the only negative element in nature is our attitude toward one another, reversing selfishness will solve all other problems. This is what scientists don’t see-our evil nature destroys our human relationships, which in turn destroys all of nature, which is reflected in the catastrophic adversity that haunts us. If we don’t break this chain, it will break us. We don’t have many years to analyze the situation; it’s time to take on the task of changing not only human behavior, but, above all, human nature.
