Hi,
Over the weekend I heard a report from Honduras about the relief work
going on to rehouse all the homeless people. The report was singing the
praises of how the relief agencies were working well together with the
people to clear 'dense scrub and trees' to build new towns and villages.
A seperate report I read last week was explaining how a lot of the
damage was caused by mud slides from eroded hillsides which had been
cleared of scrub and trees. The hurricane which caused the damage was
not a particularly bad one and by the time it reached land it was
downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm.
This sounds like a practical application of environmental ethics. The
aid agencies obvious priority is to rehouse people as quickly as
possible but should they be clearing land to do it when this could
exacerbate the problem and lead to more problems in the near furture?
Duncan
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Duncan East
Engineering Laboratory
x3064
http://office.havant.xyratex.com/groups/ecodesign/index.htm
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