Clarke: Sri Lanka Needs Warning System (Arthur C. Clarke)

[Florida_Geek]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Tsunami-Sri-Lanka-Clarke.html

December 30, 2004
Clarke: Sri Lanka Needs Warning System
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:52 a.m. ET

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Sri Lanka's best known resident, science fiction writer and visionary Arthur C. Clarke, said Thursday that he and his family were safe, but regretted the lack of a warning system in his adopted home of Sri Lanka.

Sunday's massive earthquake and tsunami killed at least 22,799 people in the South Asian nation and injured another 8,815, according to official tolls. Some 4,059 remained missing and nearly 1 million people were homeless.

``I am enormously relieved that my family and household have escaped the ravages of the sea that suddenly invaded most parts of coastal Sri Lanka, leaving a trail of destruction,'' said Clarke, the author of ``2001: A. Space Odyssey.''

Originally from Somerset, England, Clarke came to Sri Lanka, a small island country of 19 million people off India's southern tip, for underwater diving in 1954. Two years later he made the tropical island his home.

``There is much to be done in both short and long terms for Sri Lanka to raise its head from this blow from the seas,'' said Clarke in an e-mail to friends seen by The Associated Press.

``Among other things, the country needs to improve its technical and communications facilities so that effective early warnings can help minimize losses in future disasters.

..more at AP

[Khephra]

1. I'm disappointed in AP

I bet a lot of people who read this will think "Who cares about what a fiction writer thinks about the tsunami?"

Here's a bit from his bio that makes his opinions more relevant:

Arthur C. Clarke Biography

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur C. Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England on December 16, 1917. In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction.

During World War II, as a RAF officer, he was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment, the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental trials. His only non-science-fiction novel, Glide Path, is based on this work.

snip.............

In 1945 he published the technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays" laying down the principles of the satellite communication with satellites in geostationary orbits - a speculation realized 25 years later. His invention has brought him numerous honors, such as the 1982 Marconi International Fellowship, a gold medal of the Franklin Institute, the Vikram Sarabhai Professorship of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, the Lindbergh Award and a Fellowship of King's College, London. Today, the geostationary orbit at 42,000 kilometers is named The Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union.


snip................

In 1954 Clarke wrote to Dr Harry Wexler, then chief of the Scientific Services Division, U.S. Weather Bureau, about satellite applications for weather forecasting. Of these communications, a new branch of meteorology was born, and Dr. Wexler became the driving force in using rockets and satellites for meteorological research and operations.



MORE...............

http://www.lsi.usp.br/~rbianchi/clarke/ACC.Biography.ht...

[Algorem]

2. where'd he get that idea?He's probably a tax-and-spend liberal

[robcon]

3. It's basically "close the barn door after the horse gets out"

We needed people who recommended a warning system years ago.

Recommending a warning system now is playing to the cheap seats, IMO.

[NJGeek]

4. Wow! What Insight!!!

Man, Clarke is really going out a limb here. What a visionary, I though the tethered space elevator and the satellite were his best ideas, but this takes the cake.