A Preventable Tragedy

The death toll in New Zealand should be much lower than what it may turn out to be. Seeing that this is New Zealand’s most active volcano, there should have been more preparation. The loss of life was small but nonetheless too many as well. It shocks me to see that even after GeoNet had issued warnings of an impending eruption, tourists still found themselves venturing to the island. It is also clear that this is not only on the officials of the nation, as the tourists took it upon themselves to venture to the island with the possibility of knowing that this was the most active volcano. It amazes me that people hear and see the “most active” and would never think of the volcano erupting while they were amongst it. 

It is clear that this is a tragedy, but it could have been avoided as well. Scientists do have the technology to somewhat predict when the next eruption would have happened, so what happened? The loss of life could have been prevented with many solutions, but the biggest one comes from the country themselves: why did no one see this coming? The emphasis of life should have been present instead of the emphasis on commodity and profit. The number 5 is not a big number by any means, but when it comes to human life it and it’s consequences are larger. Natural events happen, maybe not often but they do happen, therefore there should have been more of an emphasis on the safety of the people before and after the eruption instead of a lingering fascination of the event itself that the world seems to be focused on. 

Craig Jackson III

Trenton, NJ