If you were a geologist, how will you convince other countries to be alarmed by the destruction brought incase a natural calamity happens?

Answer 1

This is a really hard question. I'm a geologist. We understand these issues and there are real problems with balancing Alarm vs Concern. If a geologist raises alarm about the potential danger of a sleepy volcano that's doing a little bit of rumbling, there's a conflict. If the geologist says "Volcano could blow! Quick, Move Away!" it may cause a panic. I've heard of actual death threats against geologists who made dire predictions that impacted local communities that would be negatively impacted by an exodus of people. It's important to report potential dangers carefully and clearly so that risks can be understood without causing panic, and to be certain of the immediacy of a danger if you call for an evacuation. If your studies result in an evacuation because of an impending eruption and then the eruption doesn't happen, you've just "called wolf" and after the fear subsides, people will move back to the evacuated area and they'll be less likely to leave 6 months from now when you raise the alarm again.

The way I tried to help was to spend 15 years teaching students about geological problems in the hope that these thousands of young adults will remember some of what we talked about, to help spread the word and vote in politicians who think similarly. Not sure how that's worked out... I taught a lot about climate change + sea level rise + coastal erosion + flooding, and here in the U.S. we have a lot of politicians elected who don't think that's a very important issue, and prices of coastal real estate that just keep going up and up despite the worries. There are maps of which parts of Miami that will be underwater in 10-20-30 years, but the new buildings just keep going up.

No easy answers. Every geologist has to decide personally how to fight this battle.