“The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”
Bertrand Russell.
In my previous posts on this series, I discussed the causes and how outdoor air quality and the health problem that arose from Mt Pinatubo’s eruption. For today, I will base my discussions and analysis based on this documentary on Mt Pinatubo’s eruption:
For those who did not have the time to sit through the whole 48 minutes of the documentary, here is a summary, hopefully, you can learn something from this too!
Main Problems
- Traditional Filipinos believe that their god lives within the mountains and volcanoes, and the presence of activities like volcanic eruptions is usually seen as a way that their god is ‘angry’ or ‘unhappy’. This made many of these traditional Filipinos reluctant to evacuate their home areas despite many warnings given, as they felt that it was their responsibility to ‘guard’ the volcano.
- Many Filipinos did not know how dangerous Mt Pinatubo was, as it had not erupted prior to the 1991 major volcanic eruption. Although some visible fumes were seen before the eruption, people did not take the geologists seriously, until it was too late.
- Double whammy – the Philippines was also hit badly hit by a typhoon on the same day as the major eruption, which left most places covered in mud storms, floods or thick layers of ashes.
- Due to the intense amount of toxic gases and ashes released into the atmosphere, sunlight was unable to shine through for a couple of days after the eruption, leading to a global decline in temperature for up to 3 years.
International Cooperation
- When the volcanologist stationed in Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology requested for additional manpower, backups and equipment to investigate the possibility of a volcanic eruption, geologists and volcanologists from the US flew down to the Philippines to conduct fieldwork and analysis of seismographic patterns obtained.
My Thoughts
After viewing the documentary, I think that it is very impressive for the volcanologists to conduct most of their experiments and analysis manually on-site. For a few weeks leading up to a suspected eruption, the volcanologists made numerous trips near the volcano to conduct tests for the presence of toxic gases and to analyse site activities. In my opinion, this is a rather risky operation as the volcano could erupt any time, but the volcanologists still took the risk and went ahead, as technology was rather limited in the late 20th century, as compared to all the technological advancements such as real-time satellite tracking systems present today. From this, we can see that the importance of religion and tradition also have an impact on the willingness of the people to vacate themselves should they live near the volcanoes.
That is all for today, and I hope that you have enjoyed this series ~
Disappearing into thin air,
Yuin Chi
Air Pollution 