Posted on 01/07/2005 9:08:22 AM PST by tvn
Such a system exists only in the Pacific Ocean. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26 created the tsunami that devastated parts of southern Asia.
"The death and destruction caused by the South Asian tsunami has exposed a glaring gap in our high-tech age of global connectedness," Lieberman said. "And that is the absence of a worldwide tsunami detection and warning system that existing technology can provide us at a relatively low cost."
Lieberman's bill calls for expanding the Pacific system and adding similar ones in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would use up to 50 ocean-based sensors, each costing up to $250,000 to install and $50,000 a year to maintain. Six now exist in the Pacific. NOAA also would have to pay to collect and relay the information from the ocean to satellites to international warning centers. Though tsunamis are rare, Lieberman and other government officials said the potential devastation justified the cost.
"If you had a huge tsunami hitting Florida or New York, or it could go right up the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, you would have a major disaster," said Larry Roeder, who heads the State Department's Global Disaster Information Network.
GDIN is working on such a design for protecting huge populations in coastal areas. It will be presented to the United Nations-sponsored World Conference on Disaster Reduction this month in Kobe, Japan.
Only three years ago the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, run by NOAA, got a half-dozen sensors to transmit tsunami data in the Pacific that could be relayed by satellite to scientists.
Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the Kenya-based U.N. Environment Program, said Thursday that setting up a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean is a high priority, especially to protect small island nations. He said several countries were asking for U.N. help to study how to do it.
"Let us hope that this spirit of solidarity with the victims and their families can be carried on beyond this tragedy, so that the existing and emerging environmental threats ... can also be tackled," Toepfer said.
Australian scientists are designing an Indian Ocean warning system for about $20 million. About 30 seismographs would detect earthquakes, and 10 tidal gauges and six special buoys would provide deep-ocean assessment and tsunami reporting.
None of the systems proposed, including Lieberman's, accounts for a more costly factor _ communications links to warn people in coastal areas before giant waves arrive.
Commerce Secretary nominee Carlos Gutierrez said at his Senate confirmation hearing this week that better analysis and prediction of weather and maritime hazards will be a priority.
Lieberman said he didn't know how long building a global tsunami warning system would take.
Had such a system been in place in the Indian Ocean, NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher says, thousands of lives might have been spared.
Six tsunami buoys are connected to pressure recorders 20,000 feet below on the ocean floor in the Pacific, and Lautenbacher wants to add 15 more in that ocean. However, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said it would take seven years to do just that.
"That is not acceptable with what is happening out there," Inouye told Gutierrez. "We have the technology, we have the system in place. All we need is the commitment to carry this out."
The basic elements for a worldwide ocean warning system already exist without spending $30+ MM in US tax dollars.
In 1979, the UN led the way for the launching of the Inmarsat satellite system to link ships at sea with instant communications. Now, with the addition of global positioning satellites, all ships can be tracked throughout the globe.
To establish an effective warning system, ships can simply be required to report unusual ocean activities. These reports when linked to the ships' positions can be quickly analyzed to provide the basic information to instantly assess the need to issue advisories to regions that may be impacted.
This martime (ship based) warning system can be established immediately without the expenditure of $30 MM in US tax payer funds.
Get away from the coast.
Stay there at your own risk.
See, that was effective AND inexpensive.
Well if those of us in the Western world are going to get stuck with the cleanup bill for tsunamis, I guess it makes sense for us to put in some kind of warning system all around the globe.
So a ship as sea will let someone know when a 9.0 earthquake takes place in their area? I don't understand how that could work. How will they know?
Although an Atlantic coast tsunami warning makes sense, why in the world should we have to be the ones to build a system for the rest of the ungrateful world, especially when the general global sentiment has lately been "Yankee Go Home and Die!" Let India worry about the Indian Ocean since it's the major economic and military power in that region. Sheeesh!
Well, I guess. If the conditions outlined above were to occur, I suppose we could call it a major disaster. In other words, if a tsunami happened to me and friends, it would be a major disaster. If it happened on the other side of the world, it would be a terrible tragedy.
How would the guys that shot at the helicopters have been warned by this system? Digital to analog to log drum converters?
But, no one -- not me, not you, not our children, not Bill Gates -- should be forced to contribute to any such project. Charity should be charitable. Absent charity, there's self-responsibility.
Now remember that a hurricane warning gives 24-36 hours notice, and usually is somewhat more localized than a tsunami warning would be.
Trying to evacuate a whole chunk of the eastern seaboard on a couple hours' notice could result in more collateral deaths than would the wave itself.
Let Oprah pay for it.
You can set up to be notified via email from the USGS whenever there are significant seismic events. You could write a simple program to alert a cell phone or desktop when there is an event. You probably could download the program for free.
Dittos... There we go again with the liberal need to go GLOBAL, global support, Global permission,advise,
What about the other Global nations doing their part for their part of the world.
Bump for later...
My thoughts exactly.
Yep, the ship thing is utterly worthless and pointless with regard to tsunami.
Also a surprisingly large portion of the surface of the oceans NEVER EVER sees any ship traffic. It's concentrated in a few narrow lanes.
1) quit the senate and let governor-Barbie appoint a Republican in your place.
2) go jet-hopping around the world and try to convince all the appropriate countries that it's in their best interest to pony-up money for themselves if they want to buy-in to the system - it's not up to the USA to blow their noses and wipe their backsides for them.
(2b go ask kofi-no-cream for money too. After these last few months, he needs a laugh. No, but seriously..)
3) go WORK FOR A LIVING for the rest of your life and go drop buoys in the ocean to help build the system: carter made his name building houses for the lazy, you can make your name building tidal wave protection systems for the internationally lazy.
I thought the left was against pre-emptive actions to protect citizens, or is that unless they're NOT U.S. citizens?
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