Conference Ends With Plan for Tsunami Alert
2 hours, 24 minutes ago World - AP Asia
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
KOBE, Japan - The world's nations, united in shock over the Indian Ocean catastrophe, agreed Saturday to work together to better guard their people against natural disasters, by taking steps ranging from strengthening building codes to expanding the monitoring of nature's upheavals.
First concrete step four weeks after an earthquake-tsunami killed between 157,000 and 221,000 people, according to varying government tallies, the World Conference on Disaster Reduction laid groundwork for the first tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean, expected to be in place next year.
The five-day, 168-nation U.N. conference concluded — after dozens of workshops and a final night of closed-door negotiation — by adopting a "framework for action," resolving to pursue "substantial reduction" of disaster losses in the next 10 years.
This is "one of the most critical challenges" facing the world, a final declaration said, because cyclones, floods, earthquakes and other events set back human progress, especially in poor nations.>>>
There is hope for the human race.
This is a historic moment.
After 10,000 years of recorded history and thousands of Tsunamies,a gathering of 168 Nations has reached a conclusion that living in bamboo huts on land 3 meters above sea level or on the slope of a volcano is hazardous.
Am not sure why they have decided to spend only 0.002 times the cost of this Tsunami for a warning system, or why they expect mother nature to wait a year until its in place.
Ah, but now the light dawns. I missed noting the fact that it was a UN conference.
Sig
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