Can we ever be truly be prepared for what the forces of nature can throw at us? Volcano eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, droughts, floods. And of course earthquakes and tsunamis.

If the recent disaster in Japan tells us anything, it is that no matter how well we prepare, how much time and money we spend, nature can outwit us, and destroy everything we have worked towards. She is truly a phenomenal force.

Would you be more willing to respect nature- recycling more, wasting less water, reducing emissions- if anything like what happened in Japan happened to you?

Perhaps what worries me most about the disaster in Japan is that it is just one of many fault line earthquakes which happened in the past month or so. Christchurch and Japan were the big ones, but there have been smaller ones reported too. Something is certainly going on down there, under the Earth’s crust, and it makes me wonder what the future will hold. Don’t things come in threes? Will there be another large quake soon?

We certainly thought about that while we were in California last week, chilling out on the old San Andreas fault line. The last major Earthquake there hit in 1994, in the Northridge area. (Ask Nicole for more details on that one). Many have said it’s long overdue another.

When I first visited Cali (by first I mean that I can actually remember being there) a couple of years ago, there was a small earthquake the first day I got there. At the time, I wondered what it was, and thought it was kind of cool. Having now seen the kind of destruction it wrought in Japan, cool is no longer the word I think of.

Still, in some ways, disasters like the ones that befell New Zealand and Japan can bring out the best in people. Everyone chips in to help out, camaraderie holds the nation together, and rebuilding- buildings, infrastructure, lives- soon gets under way.

Though it perhaps doesn’t seem that way, the most abstract news I saw regarding the Japanese disaster concerned stock prices. I suppose it’s only natural, but it seemed strange to me that in the face of such catastrophe, people thought about their money. Barrels of oil went down in price, as speculators predicted a fall in demand from Japan. Construction and raw material stocks all rose, as increased demand was expected to come from rebuilding efforts.

Makes you wonder if some evil people actually hope disasters (most notably war) happen, so they stand to increase their fortunes. It sickens me.

effect on stockprices- strange to think thats what people think about, in the face of such catastrophe.