I was reading the Economist this morning and saw an article entitled, "Muddy Waters." The article discussed a horrific eruption of a "hot and noxious mud" that has flooded villages, factories, rice paddies and farm land near Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya. 13,000 people have already been evacuated from the area. 125,000 cubic meters of land are being covered per day by the mud and this mud flow could continue for decades. Although the cause of this problem has not been pinpointed, some experts have alleged that a gas company caused or contributed to the disaster through drilling practices, including failing to encase the exploratory shaft. In an effort to address the situation, the Indonesian government has tried to divert the mud into the sea. Yet, this could cause another huge disaster, by hurting sea life and affecting people living on Java's eastern coast.

This article got me to thinking about how when mining or drilling for fossil fuels, we can upset nature's balance and throw it off kilter. Even when we are not directly polliuting the environment such as with using explosives to blow up mountain tops to obtain coal or by burning coal or oil, we can still damage our ecosystem by causing natural occurrences to happen in unnatural ways. Even if the mud is a "natural" material, it flooded this area of Indonesia in a very unnatural manner and with a vengeance. Perhaps this is nature's way of telling us to stop going to all lengths to satisfy our desire for fossil fuels. If we focus on wind turbines, solar panels or methane use from landfills or farms as at least a start for decreasing our need for fossil fuels, we can maybe also decrease the chances of catastrophic events like this one occurring in nature.