A burgeoning environmental movement to end continental drift, the random and pointless shifting of Earth's land masses against each other. The damages in life and property of these "natural" disasters overwhelms almost anything mankind has ever done, and yet we spend money only on efforts to predict these disasters, not prevent them. Consider:

  • At least 20,000 earthquakes occur around the world every year, causing an average of 10,000 deaths and billions of dollars in property damage annually. The estimated deaths from worse earthquake in recent history -- in Tangshan, China in 1976 -- numbered over half a million people.
  • Volcanic eruptions can kill from dozens to thousands of people, either at once or slowly due to environmental damage. An 1815 eruption in Tambora, Indonesia killed 92,000 people by gradual starvation; another in 1985 in Ruiz, Colombia caused tremendous mudslides that wiped out entire villages and 25,000 lives along with them.
  • Either volcanoes or earthquakes can cause tsunamis which in turn destroy ships, cities, and sometimes entire islands. The 1883 eruption in Krakatoa, Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 36,000 people.
  • Enormous mountain ranges caused by plate tectonics, such as the Himalayas and the Rocky Mountains, waste thousands of acres of what would be otherwise habitable and farmable land, increasing the population density in other nearby areas.
  • Political and racial differences among the peoples of the world are enforced by geographic boundaries -- oceans, seas and mountains -- which might never have existed had Pangaea never broken up.

Certainly plate tectonics was responsible for creating the lands we walk on out of the oceans in the first place, but that took place billions of years ago, and the need for it has long passed. It is time for us to stop pouring millions of dollars into merely forecasting and preventing damage from the side effects of continental drift and to start solving the problem at the source. End the earthquakes... plug the volcanoes... Stop Plate Tectonics!

Sadly, the governments of the world have shown little interest in pursuing this research to date, but those of us dedicated to this cause remain steadfast. Money is the key to increasing awareness. Send lots now.

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