This ghostly statue marks the site of a often overlooked, but devastating natural disaster — one that is sadly still ongoing.
Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.
<h2>In 2006, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/9-years-of-muck-mud-and-debate-in-java.html?_r=0" target="_blank">steaming hot mud erupted</a>, without warning, from a rice paddy in eastern Java, Indonesia, sweeping through a dozen nearby villages. </h2><p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUxNjIxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzYzNTg4M30.FKuJEwv3z8_Y_5G6oAegq0whpSL9Nr8QeYYBn7k3z_Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="f7eba" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3246ce45b22a3ff4c2b66eaf49ccca10" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p class="image-caption">Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images. <br></p><h2>20 people were killed, and thousands more were forced to flee their homes permanently. </h2><p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUxNjIxOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjkzNTM4Nn0.BxLDKSL9H4UYzX5wKRgjW_rOrrgMqeJs9-fbOikZanM/img.jpg?width=980" id="c09e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c001dd9c631c48617f1c61e8c57fe01a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p class="image-caption">Footprints in a house overwhelmed by the mud flow. Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.</p><h2>The statues were erected by sculptor Dadang Christanto in 2014 to commemorate the <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/05/29/years-calamity.html" target="_blank">eighth anniversary of the tragedy</a>. </h2><p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUxNjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzM1NzM2NX0.v947msCC-cj8X7LXu5Od5Nqld20Vp-v7Vkq0BUJAFKU/img.jpg?width=980" id="56566" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9cdfa4a7f6c718451c9827b6b22ca2b8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p class="image-caption">Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.</p><h2>Since they were installed, the sculptures have have been sinking slowly — by design.</h2><p>"They were not in mud when they started," Christanto told Australia's <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/art/2015/11/30/dadang-christantos-blood-relations/14486292002675" target="_blank">Saturday Paper in 2015</a>. "And in one year they are nearly submerged. They will disappear. It is not just the environmental disaster but the social disaster."<br></p><p><div id="upworthyFreeStarVideoAdContainer"><div id="freestar-video-parent"><div id="freestar-video-child"></div></div></div></p><h2>May 30, 2016, marked the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the deadly mud flow. </h2><p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUxNjIyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzkyMDM2Mn0.poVEr-kOYDOOXDqqM-1IIl6qlm2aAx91mwHe3RgFp_Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="b4595" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5d03096a7e942e1d8a0b7b0131a689fa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p class="image-caption">Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.</p><p>While there have been no more fatalities, mud <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110304-mud-volcano-indonesia-java-erupt-26-years/" target="_blank">continues to pour out of the volcano to this day</a>.</p><h2>There's also strong evidence that the disaster was manmade. </h2><p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUxNjIyMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTc5MjkwMX0.QFqWXwgWs7ml5iWFGqeSRoJqD2beWm0JJHB7WzM5G_M/img.jpg?width=980" id="5ad8c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c4b8b991cd86adc9afd062365db6b542" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p class="image-caption">Activists stage a protest on the fifth anniversary of the disaster. Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.</p><p>A 2015 report published in Nature <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2472.epdf?referrer_access_token=1vIWMf-6VxlbLjF9gbm9c9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OQwqwkqIO6P5dn6Ml5RNkSqcEp4aZwtX6licJuwcbgmVEmPoKL8RjSqPtMe9wE1JpmErIRoxAE8aSKVBN7h6vY4pQFYFoaV8LfBNXa6ylWJT9bKNIQN3peyPp1kY7e_vnVCbYmpxX4DJ-Wafczdq1PNU39Clbsd8XSOdWQUYpvENnSj7LnCVNZ_sWR6mMJQp4%3D&tracking_referrer=www.nytimes.com" target="_blank">argues that the gas needed to trigger the eruption could only have been unearthed by a nearby oil and gas drilling operation</a>.</p><p><strong>"We're now 99 percent confident that the drilling hypothesis is valid," Mark Tingay, the paper's lead author, told <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/9-years-of-muck-mud-and-debate-in-java.html?_r=0" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. </strong><br></p><p>(Other experts continue to disagree, arguing that the mud flow could have been <a href="http://www.livescience.com/38329-mud-eruption-caused-by-earthquake.html" target="_blank">caused by an earthquake</a>.)</p><h2>Like the <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-04-04/judge-approves-20b-settlement-in-2010-bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill" target="_blank">Deepwater Horizon spill</a>, this eruption demonstrates how lack of attention to the potential side effects of drilling can have disastrous consequences.</h2><p>The nearly 40,000 Java residents who were forced to flee their homes have endured an often painful resettlement process. Many initially took shelter wherever they could find it — often in local markets.</p><p>"We couldn't shower, we couldn't wash our clothes," Sadli, a factory worker who was displaced by the mud flow, <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-indonesia-mud-54f2415e-2750-11e6-b989-4e5479715b54-20160531-story.html" target="_blank">told the Chicago Tribune</a>. "For every toilet, there were dozens of people constantly in line."<br></p><h2>Some victims were eventually compensated. Others are still waiting. </h2><p>When Lapindo, the company in charge of the drill operation allegedly responsible for the eruption, proposed installing two new wells near the site of the disaster, protests <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-indonesia-mud-54f2415e-2750-11e6-b989-4e5479715b54-20160531-story.html" target="_blank">erupted and shut down the project</a>.</p><p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUxNjIyMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MDEyMDgyMX0.DgbXNOTyRJ7IBAMikblbmFz3I989ShxmdRfMuC086_M/img.jpg?width=980" id="95b83" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eed069253f4c0b91ccca1f1f83d28bc8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p class="image-caption">Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.</p><h2>That isn't to say we should stop drilling for oil and gas altogether. </h2><p>Icky as oil can be, we need it for the time being, and natural gas can be an alternative to far dirtier sources of power.</p><h2>But the statues serve as a kind of warning: When we mess with nature without taking the proper precautions, we don't just put our environment at risk.</h2><p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTUxNjIyMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDY2NjAxMH0.PCnVDwTMXYEBKs3GRqqvXyHTYpSsReSwopW02DEu5Nk/img.jpg?width=980" id="8d79e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef8f9e15995b17702ff40b2064a71e77" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p class="image-caption">An artist paints at the site of the sinking statues. Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images.</p><h2>We put ourselves at risk too.</h2>
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