For many years now, the term global warming has served as a catch-all phrase under the rubric of which various types of ecological incidents and natural disasters are discussed and debated - the unprecedented spells of heat and cold, the forest fires, tsunamis, floods and torrential rains we have witnesses in different locations around the world. 

The joint struggle being waged against global warming by the nations of the world has long since received a specific expressed political measurement. Given that the overwhelming majority of all man-made exhausts giving rise to the hothouse effect are the result of the use of gas, oil and coal, many countries continue the search for reusable sources of energy and intense work to perfect the means to derive energy from these sources.

This past April, two disasters stood out amongst a number of small and large ecological incidents. While they weren't directly tied to global warming, they nevertheless relate to the overall ecological situation The first was the volcanic eruption that took place in the south of Iceland, causing a great deal of inconvenience to many companies and hundreds of thousands of people alike.

The second disaster was the accident at the British Petroleum oil drill in the Gulf of Mexico and the resulting environmental disaster still unfolding. These two totally different disasters are similar in the fact that the processes involved were unmanageable and that the diverse consequences of both were so massive in scope. In the end, the two incidents, taking place in the West, underscored the technological helplessness faced by the greater developed western nations.

There are many volcanoes in Iceland and true to the Viking sagas of the Middle Ages, this volcano with an unpronounceable name, wasn’t even the most famous as it hadn’t woke from its 200 year sleep. The name “Eyjafjallajokull” means an “island of mountainous glaciers” and the plethora of these glaciers serves as the primary source of the crisis for Icelanders. If the glacier covering the mountain would have started to melt due to the volcano, then the consequences to the population nearby would have been tragic.

Furthermore, there were predictions of the possibility of chain eruptions reaching all the way to Greenland and the melting of these frozen areas could have led to a global disaster. This time, it didn’t reach the level of a global disaster. The main problem was the column of ash emanating from the volcano that rose some 3,000 to 4,500 meters into the atmosphere that was driven by the winds here and there. It effectively shut down air traffic over much of Europe.

Such an unprecedented clogging of air traffic caused massive damage to the airlines and, indirectly, to almost all economic sectors. There were also a few who came out as winners. Here, we are primarily referring to those providing mass communication services. It reminded me of the prediction made many years ago and now practically forgotten, that due to the possibilities provided by developed informational and communications technologies (internet conferencing, virtual museums, etc) the distance required by people to move about would be significantly decreased. Such a thing happened back then, but the primary result was just the opposite. Airlines demanded that the European authorities set standards for dangerous levels of ash in the air for plane engines; they were looking for ways to perfect engine operation.

Even more radical suggestions were made - to solve the problem immediately and for all times by covering the crater of the rebellious volcano with cement. Estimates were made of the costs required to close the 500 meter wide crater. It is understandable that the volcano, with its uncontrollable and unforeseeable process, struck at the most sensitive spot of people living in the West; their being accustomed to everyday comfort and convenience, to the principle that “technology is the source of convenience”, when technology had become the source of a myriad of inconveniences.

Most of those stranded in airport terminals were people who were tired, annoyed and complaining. Some had reached the point of adjusting to the situation at hand since changing it was beyond the means of mortals.

One woman being interviewed on camera, even urged others to bow down before the will of supernatural forces and you got the impression that she was giving thanks to the fact that the intervention of higher forces could so easily and completely affect the earthly (but in reality heavenly, since we are talking about airplanes) activities and plans of man.

The Icelandic volcano had not yet settled down when a British Petroleum (BP) oil well in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. This was not a whim of unbridled natural forces but the latest, in a series of tragic accidents , when man seeks to harvest nature’s resources. The oil drill in the Gulf of Mexico is just 64 kilometers from the coast of Louisiana and it was not difficult to comprehend the possible consequences of the accident to the gulf and shoreline.

The American authorities declared a state of emergency; the National Guard was dispatched to halt the oil gushing out of the well and its spread to coastal areas. Efforts to cap the well and to recapture some of the oil now floating through the gulf were hindered by various engineering and technological complications, since the work to cap the gushing well was being done at a depth of 1.5 kilometers beneath the sea.

Efforts by BP to plug the well with a specially made metal cap failed. This was followed by other failures to plug the well. In the end, it was declared that the best estimate for a potential solution would be in August, at the earliest. It is clear to all that this is the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, bigger even than the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil tanker accident in Alaska.

Irreparable damage has been done to plant and animal life in the gulf, to the fishing and tourism sectors in the region. It is still too early to provide final estimates of the damage and losses (even though compensation claims against BP are already being drafted and BP shares have dropped), but it is clear that further restrictions will be proposed for oil company operations, security standards will be beefed up, by demanding investment in more developed and problem-free technologies.

Based on environmental exigencies, social attitudes in America regarding policies for the exploitation of the country’s oil resources will harden (Americans are not used to seeing such disasters so close to their shores) and this will keep the U.S. dependent on Persian Gulf oil. Recently, the economic and environmental consequences of the disaster have been overshadowed by brewing political tensions. It is hard to disguise the growing conflict between the Obama administration and BP top management. Mutual charges of guilt have been levied regarding professional incompetence and that certain figures have been doctored - on the one hand to disguise the real scope of the disaster and , on the other, to overestimate the resources at hand to battle the disaster.

In any case, the only clear way today to solve the problems brought on by various technologies is to invent new ones. This also is the case when it comes to the problem of global warming. Even though the exploitation of oil, gas and coal continues like before, nevertheless, as we are aware, there are plans on the table to gradually decrease the amounts of exhausts responsible for the hothouse effect, new renewable sources of energy are being crafted and employed - wind solar, different biological components, ways to tap the earth’s thermal energy and completely new system models for the distribution and consumption of electricity are being drafted.

Here, ecological, economic and political issues are also fully intertwined. If we accept the possibility that the governments of countries will reach an agreement in the joint struggle against global warming, then, her too, it will be the developing nations that will lose out much more. It is correct, these nations will get a much smaller share of allowable dangerous exhausts, but the development of those industrial sectors has a much greater vital significance for their economies.

Thus, it turns out that the developing nations are being held accountable for the excesses and crimes of the developed nations. On the other hand, to implement new energy sources, they fall into a new technological and financial dependency with the developed nations and trans-national corporations.

Different natural disasters, including the tragic consequences of tsunamis that occur much more frequently and are just as unpredictable and uncontrollable, continue to remind us just far nature remains from finally being tamed and mastered.

At the same time, incidents on the massive scale of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, serve as powerful reminders of something that had become a simple truth long ago - how defenseless nature is and just how vulnerable it is in the face of the consequences of man’s shortsighted actions.