Quaking in our boots

I don't know if you noticed but New Zealand has had some terrible tremors that have left a lot of environmental damage and also claimed some human lives. If you are rational and objective it is hard to think too much about the human victims because, as the globe's most invasive species, humans should not there. New Zealand was a secure, isolated natural paradise until Captain Cook arrived when, like most colonisers, he announced the Europeans' arrival by killing the other-skinned peoples who were already there.

Still, it is hard to replace our instinctive empathy for our fellow pink apes with nothing but dispassionate rationality, so Verdant Hopes wishes those who survived a happy recovery from their injuries etc. When their minds are clear again they will owe it to themselves to think about cause and effect -- why did those earthquakes come, and why did they do such terrible damage.

Now the verdict is in. As the damage caused by our raping greed and lack of empathy with the planet gows and compounds, the number of earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides and volcanic eruptions increases in step.

“Observations suggest that the ongoing rise in global average temperatures may already be eliciting a hazardous response from the geosphere.”

So let us by imbued with sympathy for our Kiwi cousins. But it also needs to be made clear to them that we reap what we sow.

UPDATE: The following graphs make the connection absolute. The first is the increase in earthquakes.

And this one shows temperature increases:

Hard to deny the evidence of your own eyes, isn't it (except if you are Andrew Bolt, that is)