"We Cause Natural Disasters."

[Calderownz]

I remember watching a youtube video once with Deepak Chopra (can't find it, sorry) about his idea/concept on what caused natural disasters.

With the recent 8.9 earthquake in Japan, this got me to thinking.

Generally, I don't agree with Deepak Chopra by any means, but his theory was at the very least interesting.

Like I stated, I couldn't get find the exact video, but his theory was essentially that humans had a lot to do with the recent flare up in natural disasters. Technically, at this point, I'd agree with him.

However, what he was stating as the "exact" reason was a bit different then I would have believed. He stated that he feels that the Earth is a living organism. Like any other organism, it feeds off of it's surroundings. Like a tree or flower or even a human being. Bad energy is fed into the organism, and it produces negative results.

This, I assume, would be one of those results.

Now, it's one thing to have this theory in a sort of vague way, or to store it in your mind as possible theory. However, when something like this happens, it really makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

Questions:

1. Do you see any validity to his argument? Why or why not?

2. What do you think might cause such things to happen?

3. Anything else you might like to add.

 

[lenguy]

To an extend an argument could be present that we are cause of some natural disasters. We do contribute to the warming of the planet which in turn warms the earth, melts the ice cap, warms the surrounding waters and creates stronger hurricanes and other various storms. But to say we are the cause of it all natural disasters is vacuous. These things happen, they have since the beginning of the earths formation some 4.5 billion years ago. Natural disasters have always been apart of the earths existence, we should just learn to live with it and prevent them when/if possible.

The earth in a sense can be said as a living organism. Its always on the move and always changing, while some of this change can be very gradual some of it is also instantaneous. The thing with Japan is that it lies on four of the continental plates, the pacific plate, the Eurasian plate,the north American plate and the Filipino plate. So earthquakes are likely to occur frequently.

Everything has a logical answer, natural disasters are a thing of nature and they will happen from time to time. We have an influence of some of them but not all of them.

 

[Minnesota Connection]

To agree with this guy, you'd have to believe in the Gaia Theory.

That the Earth is alive and we are hurting it with out toxins and pollutants. So it is trying to get rid of us, by creating earthquakes, tsunami's tornados... So forth, so on.

I do not believe in this theory. Its a nice thing to believe in when you are little, and I admit, I thought, "What If" maybe when I was nine.

Since then, I have seen no evidence that backs it. Anyone with some, willing to share?

 

[Xemmy]

1. Do you see any validity to his argument? Why or why not?
No. The Earth is a planet, and it is not alive. There is no evidence that suggests otherwise.

2. What do you think might cause such things to happen?
There is little evidence to suggest that natural disasters are occuring at an increased rate. And even if it's true, it's certainly not at a rate that is considerable.
Earthquakes have been happening for billions of years. Tsunami have been around as long as water has been on Earth.


3. Anything else you might like to add.

The people that lived through the Black Death believed that their sin and evil had brought upon their suffering. Certain people think that gays, sinners, and abortionists brought on 9/11. And now some people believe that this is a sign of the end of the world in 2012. Believing that the Earth is spitting out disasters because it's been absorbing "negative human energy" is little different. We've done bad things, and so hell is coming to Earth. It's the same ol' shtick.

None of this is to belittle the trouble with the environment. But we haven't caused natural disasters. It's not quite The Day After Tommorow yet.

 

[Calderownz]

For the record, I'm not claiming that I believe in this theory. I don't. I just found it interesting. So, I figured I'd get some opinions on it. That's all.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

I would treat this as a legitimate theory if there were any kind of scientific proof of A) Earth being a living organism (protip: it's not), and B) a kind of "energy" that causes natural disasters.

The fact of the matter is, scientists KNOW what causes these natural disasters. If WE were causing them, they wouldn't be classified as natural disasters, though this could be debated if I were to derail this thread into a debate about global warming, which I won't do.

No, the earthquake/tsunami disaster was a direct result of Japan being directly on top of a plate line, and plate lines tend to shift because of compressed hot air which needs to be let out, causing earthquakes.

I quite frankly tend to believe theories backed up by actual evidence, studies, and experiments rather than those that aren't.