8.9 Earthquake

And now Japan has been struck by an historic natural disaster:

TOKYO — An 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan on Friday, the strongest ever recorded in the country and one of the largest anywhere in the last century. The quake churned up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away as the West Coast of the United States and South America.

Are these not happening at a faster clip? It can seem like nations will soon have to devote a lot of their resources just to responding to the aftermath of this planet's convulsive fits. And one can wonder if the world is becoming something else, something less amenable to our urban civilization.

8.9 Earthquake

And now Japan has been struck by an historic natural disaster:

TOKYO — An 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan on Friday, the strongest ever recorded in the country and one of the largest anywhere in the last century. The quake churned up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away as the West Coast of the United States and South America.

Are these not happening at a faster clip? It can seem like nations will soon have to devote a lot of their resources just to responding to the aftermath of this planet's convulsive fits. And one can wonder if the world is becoming something else, something less amenable to our urban civilization.