Following Raju Das's contrinbution, yes it is very interesting no-one
else has commented on the cyclone - a similar principle seems to
apply here to the way UK newspapers covaerage of disaters is
proportional not only to the loss of ;life but alos to the distance
away that the loss of life took place. That is to say, a 100 life
disaster in the UK merits the same no of column inches as a 10,000
life disaster in say Bangladesh; a disaster killing 500 in the UK
gets many more inches than the same disaster in say Iran or Nigeria.
On a related note, I have long been wondering how many climatic
disasters have to hit developed areas, like say New York or London,
before the world economic consensus begins to move in favour of say
limiting CO2 emissions rather than continued economic growth? And
what will be the role of the world's insurance companies in speeding
up this shift in emphasis? Or to put it crudely, exactly how many
metres underwater does a nice new financial centre like London's
docklands have to be before businessmen put the environment first?
Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds.
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