Tidal waves prove technology's value.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

The tidal waves that took so many lives recently again raised the question: Why do devastating natural disasters wreak far more havoc in undeveloped nations than in advanced ones?

Environmentalists often argue that disasters are caused by man's "interference with nature" through technology and industrialization. However, as the "tsunami tragically demonstrated, environmentalists are dead wrong," asserts Andrew Bernstein, senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, Irvine, Calif.

"Far from being the cause of such tragedies, science, technology, and industry provide the only means of safeguarding human lives against natural disasters."

Bernstein points to the recurring example of the relatively undeveloped Caribbean islands, which suffer far worse devastation and loss of life from the same hurricanes that hammer Florida year after year. The U.S. makes its hurricane forecasts available to these island nations, but because of poor communications, bad roads and bridges, weak...