It so happens that while we in China are mobilized to fight the
worst snow disaster in memory, many people in the United States are
commemorating the 30th anniversary of another snow crisis.
Going down in history as the "Great Blizzard of 1978", the
"white hurricane" that swept North America in late January and
early February 30 years ago left many Americans with no power, no
heat, and no transportation for days or weeks on end. People were
trapped in their houses or offices or on roads. A state of
emergency was declared in several states, and National Guard troops
were called in to aid stranded people on highways.
Many Americans who lived through the blizzard have never
forgotten it, nor will their Chinese counterparts forget their snow
disaster 30 years later.
Statistics show that the 1978 blizzard caused $500 million in
damages to Massachusetts alone. It is not yet known how much the
ongoing snow disaster will cost China, but it is certain we will be
hit harder since it struck right in the middle of the peak travel
time for the country's most important festival. And the snowstorms
have hit parts of the country where such weather is rare.
It would be pointless to compare which of the snow disasters has
been more disruptive. What is noteworthy is the similarity of the
challenges posed by the two crises, though they are separated by
three decades.
Many agree that the recent snowstorms highlight the
vulnerability of China's booming economy. It is obvious that the
extreme weather caught the Chinese government and people unprepared
and worsened problems such as the shortage of power, traffic
congestion and inflation.
Similar scenarios were witnessed during the Great Blizzard of
1978. People who experienced that crisis vividly recall years later
that there were no deliveries of food, milk and newspapers, among
other things. Some food items were rationed. In disaster areas,
many people were left without heat, water, food and electricity for
more than a week after the storm finished. Schools were closed for
weeks.
Yet even 30 years back, the United States, as a well-developed
superpower, was far better off than China is today. And the
northern US states hit by the blizzard were better equipped to
handle ice and snow than the southern Chinese provinces in the
current snow crisis.
Nevertheless, as Thomas Schmidlin, a weather historian and
professor of geography at Kent State University, remarked 25 years
after the 1978 blizzard: "With our comforts of cars, electricity
and heating, we may actually be more vulnerable to these blizzards
than Ohioans of the 19th century, who were more independent and
could tolerate disruptions of a few days."
This is perhaps inconveniently true in both countries. Although
we are at varying levels of development, we seem equally impotent
in the face of natural disasters. We are both handicapped when our
modern infrastructure is left paralyzed by the extremes of
nature.
Yes, people in southern China are fighting the snow disaster
heroically. The best we can do, however, is to minimize the damage
rather than immunize ourselves from such hits. Even if the
country's infrastructure is improved after the snow crisis, we will
not be able to guarantee that expressways will not be shut down,
flights not be canceled or delayed and railways not affected when
we have another bout of nasty weather.
If the modernity we rely on so heavily is so vulnerable to
natural elements, should we not be asking ourselves whether such
reliance is reasonable? It is a nightmare when electricity is your
only means of making heat, but the coal used to make power cannot
be delivered.
Of course we should not go back to primitive times to avoid the
blows of extreme weather. But it would really be disastrous if we
completely lacked alternatives when our main transport and
communication networks were affected by bad weather.
Maybe we should take some inspiration from the role played by
internal combustion locomotives during the current snow disaster.
When the power failure paralyzed electric locomotives, internal
combustion locomotives served as "ferry engines" to drive the
trains out of their tight spots.
In normal times, everyone would consider the electric locomotive
"more advanced" than its internal combustion counterpart. Now we
know we are mistaken.
The crises in the United States 30 years ago and the one
unfolding now in China send a similar warning: The modernization in
which we indulge may not be as powerful as it looks. We have to
find a path to modernization that can sustain us in all kinds of
weather. The modernization we need should improve our capacity to
cope with a snow disaster like the one we have now, rather than
just help us when it comes time to clean up afterwards.
The author is a council member of the China Society
for Human Rights Studies.
(China Daily February 5, 2008)
