Al-Ahram Weekly Online 2 - 8 August 2001 Issue No.545
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Limelight

Nature's greatest show on earth

By Lubna Abdel-Aziz

Nature has chosen the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula to hold her summer's illustrious pageant of pomp and majesty, of flourish and fanfare. At the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily, the flaming and flashing spectacle is presented daily by Europe's most active volcano. Red-hot rivers of fire gushing from the great mountain leave viewers breathless, trembling and shaking in front of the most vicious and dramatic of nature's time-bombs. Nothing equals the excitement and thrill of the display that nature has orchestrated as her summer offering.

Granted there may be side-shows, such as the Mayon volcano erupting in the Philippines, and the wild forest fires raging uncontrollably in the USA; they still remain a distant second to the glitter and sparkle at the foot of Mount Etna.

After nearly 10 years of repose, the volcano awoke with a thundering and deafening roar, foaming at the mouth, spewing great flames of lava, shooting up to 1000 feet in the air, to be gaped and marvelled at, from as far as 50 miles away. This dramatic awakening has captured the headlines causing a rush and furore among the world's media as they record the stunning and awesome sight of Nature's might and beauty. But reports of panic in the area are greatly exaggerated. This grand spectacle has, on the contrary, drawn more tourists, visitors and on-lookers, not to mention the media and TV crews and scientists with their numerous technical equipment. Tourists, nowhere near Sicily, are heading there for a front-seat view of the drama and splendour of nature's pyrotechnic display of the season. The atmosphere can be likened to one huge party with people gathered to celebrate, pray and hold vigil, below the Mount.

This romantic snow-covered peak, rising 3,340 metres high, on the eastern coast of the island of Sicily has already seen the destruction of orchards, vineyards and orange groves, which grow around its 160 kilometre base, parts of which are spread out on the shores of the Mediterranean. Despite the regular eruptions that have taken place since 700 BC, this region is still the most populated area of Sicily. Since the 17th century, more than 80 eruptions have been recorded, destroying complete towns, crops and human life. "Volcano" comes from "Vulcan", the name of the ancient Roman god of fire. The Romans believed the god lived beneath a volcanic island off the Italian coast, which they called "Vulcano".

Ingrid Bergman in Stromboli 1949

Since the homo sapiens species stood erect, he has been engaged in moulding and reshaping the nature around him. Though he started by worshipping her, he soon learnt to use her, and by so doing, destroy her. She has watched in acquiescence, rather than subjugation, as man turned green fields and meadows into towns and cities, lush forests and jungles into towers and skyscrapers, mountains and valleys into railroads and highways, rivers and canyons into factories and laboratories. Never fully approving, Nature has lashed back with her own brand of discontent and destruction. The feeble voices of those of us seeking to preserve her have, for the most part, been drowned by the loud cries of an unconscionable, highly industrialised, expertly technicalised society.

Man's advanced scientific research has defied disease, ageing and even death. Our very own mortality may be threatened by our recent genome discovery, and man may have to live under the ominous threat that he may never die. Does he therefore have nothing more to fear? Nothing but Nature herself, with her incomprehensible and mystifying power and majesty. Every now and again, Mother Nature will teach her child a lesson or two.

Thanks to the thousands of items of technical equipment at hand, scientists will learn more about volcanoes today, than they have in all of history. Still, knowing more about the magma and lava, the tectonic plates and their collisions, their fissures and emissions and all the whys and whens, will not tell us how to stop them. Earthquakes occur a million a year; but scientists can tell us little about how to prevent them. Richter and Gutenberg told us how to measure them when they occur -- but that does not stop their course of destruction of lives and property.

Floods, hurricanes, typhoons, tidal waves, tornadoes: all are different phenomena of Nature's powers of destruction. As deadly, though quieter, are Nature's droughts. They produce famine, starvation, death and destruction. Plagues and epidemics are her other silent killers. The Black Death (thought to be the Bubonic Plague, 1347 -- 1351) killed half of Europe's population. Early in the last century (1918 --- 1919) an epidemic of influenza alone, killed 20 million people around the world. Together, they were responsible for the highest number of deaths, worldwide in history. Of course since then we have discovered penicillin, and today, with our sophisticated antibiotics, this could never happen - or so we thought -- until the arrival of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Scientists estimate that more than a quarter of a million people will die from AIDS each year. Nature remains mightier at any time, in any age, and we remain forever at her mercy.

Cinema has for the most part relegated those natural disasters to a second class category, preferring by far the man-made disasters, such as wars and persecutions. Still some efforts are made every decade or so. In 1936 the San Francisco earthquake starred Clark Gable. In 1949 Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rosselini's torrid love affair produced more interest than their joint effort, of the Stromboli volcano disaster! Anna Magnani, who was replaced by Bergman in Stromboli, came out with her own disastrous outburst that same year: Vulcano. In 1971, Hollywood gathered together an all-star cast, headed by Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner, to produce Earthquake. A quarter of a century later, Hollywood gave us Dante's Peak, with Pierce Brosnan, and Volcano with Tommy Lee Jones, both in 1997 and both mediocre products at best. Only last year's production of The Perfect Storm, with George Clooney, achieved some critical acclaim. Other films about man-made disasters, such as Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, the atomic-doom drama On The Beach, and, of course, the recent blockbuster, Titanic, have fared much better by the film-makers as well as at the box-office.

Man has always been in a race with Nature, in his endless efforts to analyse and decipher her myriad mysteries. He built boats to sail her seas. He built planes to fly her skies. He invented science to better understand his body and his environment. He invented the arts to better express the depths of his own inner feelings, and his splendid love and huge dread of the nature around him. Yet no painting or symphony can come close to Nature's original offering. As we watch the molten lava rolling momentously, sending dancing balls of fire, swinging and swaying down the mountain slopes, we realise how Nature's primeval forces remain beyond man's scope of comprehension. Call her what you will, Nature's supremacy is unquestionable and unfathomable. It is no wonder that early man knelt down daily in reverence and humility, to worship the sanctity and the holiness of the awesome beauty surrounding him.

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