Moral and Existential Lessons from Chernobyl

HBO’s five-part mini-series documenting the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster in the Soviet Union is powerful because of the existential and moral messages it conveys—critical messages for our time

Towards a Resilient Future: Experiences with Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

This testimony shows the urgency of the problems faced by people on the front line of climate change, which is exposing more and more people to increased risk of dis This testimony shows the urgency of the problems faced by people on the front line of climate change, which is exposing more and more people to increased risk of diaster and directly affecting their lives and livelihoods. Tragically, the global community turns a blind eye to the severity of the risks posed by climate change and is doing too little to help people prepare themselves for these risks. Community managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR) is an effective strategy of addressing the impacts and effects of climate change and reducing communities' vulnerability to disasters

Government Efforts In Disaster Emergency Capacity

AbstractIn this study, it will be explained about several matters relating to the actions of the government in its capacity as a body that has the authority as a supervisor, especially in the event of a disaster emergency. In this study regarding government oversight also has several objectives. Studies on disaster management are no longer considered to be the domination of the exact science of concentration, but rather to physical development as a means of disaster management. [1]On the other hand, the discussion this time has also spread or spread to other branches of social science such as sociology and anthropology. When we discuss aspects of disaster management from the perspective of social science it will be more inclined or lead to a behavioralism framework than an individual or someone in translating a disaster which later will also be a factor where the government can determine attitudes related to how to behave or take appropriate supervisory action. . The research method used is descriptive qualitative. Whereas information or supporting data will be taken from various sources both in legal factors and related journals and data collected by observing, documenting and searching for reliable sources.Keywords : Authority, authority, supervisor, disaster management.[1] Wasisto Raharjo Jati, "Analysis of Disaster Management Based on Cultural Theory Perspectives", Gadjah Mada University Journal of FISIPOL Department of Politics and Government, Volume 4 No. 4, June 2013

The 1935 Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake

The history of natural disasters in Taiwan has frequently been linked to the practice of historical preservation, archival science, oral history, and museum curatorship. All are collectively hallmarks of a broad range of activities that fall under the umbrella of public history. The problem for Taiwan, however, concerns the legitimacy. Taiwan does not have a single national narrative. It has been subjected to waves of colonialism since the seventeenth century and does not presently have a fully post-colonial narrative. The earthquakes discussed in this paper occurred in two different periods of colonisation.  In order to situate the history of earthquakes into a public history discourse, the field of earthquake-based research in Taiwan has to incorporate different audiences and integrate into a much broader understanding. By this, I mean that the present regimental academic disciplines in Taiwan need to be cross disciplinary, especially since public history is by its very nature collaborative. It illuminates a shared authority over a much wider area. It needs to. It is my argument that it is in digital humanities that Taiwanese academics work best in collaboration. Efforts have been made to digitise the personal experiences of those involved in typhoon reconstruction efforts. A natural synergy, therefore, for the understanding of earthquakes, as public history, is to emphasise access and broad participation in the creation of knowledge. Digital humanities enables this. Attention to this is particularly important in historical preservation of particular sites on an island that frequently develops and re-develops brownfield sites

A practitioners guide to managing geoscience information

In the UK the Natural Environment Research Council manages its scientific data holdings through a series of Environmental Data Centres1 Within the Earth Science sector the National Geoscience Data Centre covering Atmosphere, Bioinformatics, Earth Sciences, Earth Observation, Hydrology, Marine Science and Polar Science. 2 - Risk Reduction; (NGDC), a component of the British Geological Survey (BGS), is responsible for managing the geosciences data resource. The purpose of the NGDC is to maintain the national geoscience database and to ensure efficient and effective delivery by providing geoscientists with ready to access data and information that is timely, fit for purpose, and in which the user has confidence. The key benefits that NERC derives from this approach are: - Increased Productivity; and - Higher Quality Science. The paper briefly describes the key benefits of managing geoscientific information effectively and describes how these benefits are realised within the NGDC and BGS

Bearing Witness

Dixon, Jennifer. Bearing Witness. Library Journal 11 Sep. 2019: n. pag. Online

Community and Resilience among Sherpas in the Post-Earthquake Everest Region

In this article, I examine how residents of the Mount Everest region of Nepal responded after two major earthquakes occurred on April 25th and May 12th, 2015. This article is based on my participant-observation of discussions among Sherpas, on-foot surveys of earthquake damage, and the experiences of residents, which I recorded in Pharak, between the two major seismic events. I also reviewed institutional activities and reports that pertained to the Everest region and spoke at length with other Sherpas. In these discussions, the boundaries of ‘community’ were both fluid and self-understood. A ‘sense of community’ and ‘resilience’ emerged as salient themes, and provided an analytical framework to understand the Sherpa communities’ responses to these earthquakes. The case studies presented herein are selected based on my direct engagement with them. The narratives present critical social responses to the process of relief and recovery and illustrate Sherpa resilience. ‘Resilience,’ as an analytical lens, also reveals the residents’ ambivalent attitudes about the situation. Although the community was highly aware of devastation and post-earthquake recovery needs, ‘external’ discussions of these topics were subdued. This article then addresses how ‘internal’ Sherpa discussions arose as a response to external portrayals of the Everest region, a popular tourism destination, as a ‘non-affected’ or ‘less-affected’ earthquake zone. Interactions and discussions that took place ‘externally’ were unidirectional and top-down, wherein the villagers were at the receiving end, and often absent. While internal discussions strengthened the community’s ability to rebuild itself, external discussions were instrumental in diverting large-scale relief and rebuilding assistance, not only from the region, but from the entire Solukhumbu district

Evaluation of the System of Disaster Management Resulting from War Operations and Terrorism in Iraq

Nowadays the science of disaster and crisis management is considered as one of the important sciences all over the world. Therefore, disaster management is considered an important and common subject that requires great efforts. So continuous research is one of the important ways to establish the best methods to evaluate and develop the management of disasters and crises. Such methods are appropriate to deal with the suffering that many countries experience from natural and environmental disasters from time to time. This research aims to show the significance of disaster and crisis management in general. It also explores the current situation related to disaster response management in Iraq. This exploration focuses on the achievement of the basic functions of the management operation (planning, organizing, directing, controlling). In addition, it identifies the weaknesses and the strengths of the current administrative system in all its elements and analyses all the problems and the defects in every element, in order to treat and solve these problems and defects by making recommendations to improve the immediate response system to serve Iraqi disaster management in the future. In order to satisfy this aim, data collection included information obtained from literatures relating to disaster and crisis management. In addition, other information was obtained from a field survey of the directories of the civil defence in Iraq. Furthermore, collective and personal interviews with specialists related to disasters and crisis resulting from the war operations and terrorism were conducted. Analysis of the data results revealed many weak points in the current system and this was confirmed by the field survey. It showed us more clearly the areas where the weak points appear in the management function, especially in the planning and organization functions. One of the most important weak points is the absence of heavy equipment, as well as the shortage of specialist engineering staff and a dependence on assistance from other service departments. This is because of the local roles and the departmental management in the government. Finally, the study reached a set of conclusions and recommendations, including providing the directories of the civil defence with the heavy rescue equipment and providing specialist trained engineering staff to deal with the disasters and crises. Moreover, it sets in place an incentive scheme for the related members of the directories of the civil defence. Such schemes encourage them to continue working to face the unnatural circumstances that Iraq is experiencing and to create an environment similar to that of developed countries in the world. This contributes to overcoming the disasters of all shapes and reduces the damage to lives and property

Stadiums and National Trauma: Remembering the Katrina Disaster

Latin American Studie