Pub Date : 2019-11-01DOI: 10.1142/s219688881999001x
{"title":"Author Index Volume 6 (2019)","authors":"","doi":"10.1142/s219688881999001x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s219688881999001x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43985076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-14DOI: 10.1142/s2345737619500027
Walid Al-Saqaf, P. Berglez
This study examines how three types of extreme events (heat waves, droughts, floods) are mentioned together with climate change on social media. English-language Twitter use during 2008–2017 is analyzed, based on 1,127,996 tweets (including retweets). Frequencies and spikes of activity are compared and theoretically interpreted as reflecting complex relations between the extreme event factor (the occurrence of an extreme event); the media ecology factor (climate-change oriented statements/actions in the overall media landscape) and the digital action factor (activities on Twitter). Flooding was found to be by far the most tweeted of the three in connection to climate change, followed by droughts and heat waves. It also led when comparing spikes of activity. The dominance of floods is highly prevalent from 2014 onwards, triggered by flooding events (extreme event factor), the climate science controversy in US politics (media ecology factor) and the viral power of celebrities’ tweets (digital action factor).
{"title":"How Do Social Media Users Link Different Types of Extreme Events to Climate Change? A Study of Twitter During 2008–2017","authors":"Walid Al-Saqaf, P. Berglez","doi":"10.1142/s2345737619500027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s2345737619500027","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how three types of extreme events (heat waves, droughts, floods) are mentioned together with climate change on social media. English-language Twitter use during 2008–2017 is analyzed, based on 1,127,996 tweets (including retweets). Frequencies and spikes of activity are compared and theoretically interpreted as reflecting complex relations between the extreme event factor (the occurrence of an extreme event); the media ecology factor (climate-change oriented statements/actions in the overall media landscape) and the digital action factor (activities on Twitter). Flooding was found to be by far the most tweeted of the three in connection to climate change, followed by droughts and heat waves. It also led when comparing spikes of activity. The dominance of floods is highly prevalent from 2014 onwards, triggered by flooding events (extreme event factor), the climate science controversy in US politics (media ecology factor) and the viral power of celebrities’ tweets (digital action factor).","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/s2345737619500027","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48628150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-14DOI: 10.1142/S2345737619500015
Neiler Medina, Y. Abebe, Arlex Sanchez, Z. Vojinovic, I. Nikolic
On September 5 2017, a Category 5 Hurricane, named Irma, struck the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten causing destruction and loss of life across the territory. This paper presents a household survey and the main findings related to vulnerability and risk to extreme weather events in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The post-disaster context posed challenges in relation to data collection, determination of sample size and timing of the fieldwork. The survey was conducted using a combination of face-to-face interviews and web-administered questionnaires. This method proved useful in achieving a better coverage of the study area as well as obtaining a greater overall response rate. With regards to the timing of the survey, it was found that a period of six months between Hurricane Irma’s landfall and the field data campaign was adequate in terms of availability of resources and emotional distress of respondents. Data collected in the survey was categorized into general household information, hurricane preparedness and reaction, and risk perception/awareness. Survey findings show that the factors that increased vulnerability and risk on the island include a high tenancy rate, low insurance coverage, lack of house maintenance, disregard to building regulations (particularly on leased lands), low evacuation rate, not receiving a clear warning, and lack of preparation. The factors that reduce vulnerability include high hurricane awareness at a household level and high tendency of rebuilding houses with comparable quality to houses that can sustain hurricanes. Finally, recommendations are provided that could potentially reduce communities’ vulnerability and risk to hurricanes, and lessons learned in conducting household surveys after disasters.
{"title":"Surveying After a Disaster: Capturing Elements of Vulnerability, Risk and Lessons Learned from a Household Survey in the Case Study of Hurricane Irma in Sint Maarten","authors":"Neiler Medina, Y. Abebe, Arlex Sanchez, Z. Vojinovic, I. Nikolic","doi":"10.1142/S2345737619500015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737619500015","url":null,"abstract":"On September 5 2017, a Category 5 Hurricane, named Irma, struck the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten causing destruction and loss of life across the territory. This paper presents a household survey and the main findings related to vulnerability and risk to extreme weather events in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The post-disaster context posed challenges in relation to data collection, determination of sample size and timing of the fieldwork. The survey was conducted using a combination of face-to-face interviews and web-administered questionnaires. This method proved useful in achieving a better coverage of the study area as well as obtaining a greater overall response rate. With regards to the timing of the survey, it was found that a period of six months between Hurricane Irma’s landfall and the field data campaign was adequate in terms of availability of resources and emotional distress of respondents. Data collected in the survey was categorized into general household information, hurricane preparedness and reaction, and risk perception/awareness. Survey findings show that the factors that increased vulnerability and risk on the island include a high tenancy rate, low insurance coverage, lack of house maintenance, disregard to building regulations (particularly on leased lands), low evacuation rate, not receiving a clear warning, and lack of preparation. The factors that reduce vulnerability include high hurricane awareness at a household level and high tendency of rebuilding houses with comparable quality to houses that can sustain hurricanes. Finally, recommendations are provided that could potentially reduce communities’ vulnerability and risk to hurricanes, and lessons learned in conducting household surveys after disasters.","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/S2345737619500015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44236294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-14DOI: 10.1142/s2345737619500040
P. Bhaskaran
An increasing number of instances in extreme weather events over the global oceans have deepened the concerns on the impact of climate change. The frequency of extreme weather events is also seen to increase attributes to climate change across the globe. In the Indian context, there has been about 285 reported flooding events over the period from 1950 to 2017 that affected nearly 850 million people with many causalities. As the global oceans become stormier, the effects are seen in rising sea level and infrastructural facilities. Major flooding events are caused by tropical cyclone-induced storm surge and associated breaking waves. These extreme weather events coupled with sea level rise have serious repercussions on the coastal vulnerability. Also recently, there is an upsurge in the intensity and tropical cyclone size that forms over the North Indian Ocean region that brought attention among the scientific community. The worst possible scenario of extreme water level can occur when the time of storm surge occurrence coincides with the astronomical high water. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview on the research developments and efforts made in ocean wave modeling in particular for the Indian seas. As per the Fifth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the role and influence of ocean surface gravity wave in the climate system are considered to be very important. At present, numerical models are widely used and that can be used to hindcast and forecast the wave characteristics over both regional and global ocean basin scales. A detailed overview on the observational techniques is listed along with the historical perspective and recent developments in wind-wave modeling for the Indian seas. Recent developments in computing technology and advanced numerical techniques have made it possible to solve the complex problems in coastal science and engineering using state-of-the-art numerical models providing realistic estimates, cost effective and having immense potential in operational weather centers. This review also deals with some of the important issues and future directions in wind-wave modeling studies such as improvements required in momentum transfer, bottom dissipation, and rain–wave interaction effects that require detailed understanding and concentrated efforts.
{"title":"Challenges and Future Directions in Ocean Wave Modeling — A Review","authors":"P. Bhaskaran","doi":"10.1142/s2345737619500040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s2345737619500040","url":null,"abstract":"An increasing number of instances in extreme weather events over the global oceans have deepened the concerns on the impact of climate change. The frequency of extreme weather events is also seen to increase attributes to climate change across the globe. In the Indian context, there has been about 285 reported flooding events over the period from 1950 to 2017 that affected nearly 850 million people with many causalities. As the global oceans become stormier, the effects are seen in rising sea level and infrastructural facilities. Major flooding events are caused by tropical cyclone-induced storm surge and associated breaking waves. These extreme weather events coupled with sea level rise have serious repercussions on the coastal vulnerability. Also recently, there is an upsurge in the intensity and tropical cyclone size that forms over the North Indian Ocean region that brought attention among the scientific community. The worst possible scenario of extreme water level can occur when the time of storm surge occurrence coincides with the astronomical high water. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview on the research developments and efforts made in ocean wave modeling in particular for the Indian seas. As per the Fifth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the role and influence of ocean surface gravity wave in the climate system are considered to be very important. At present, numerical models are widely used and that can be used to hindcast and forecast the wave characteristics over both regional and global ocean basin scales. A detailed overview on the observational techniques is listed along with the historical perspective and recent developments in wind-wave modeling for the Indian seas. Recent developments in computing technology and advanced numerical techniques have made it possible to solve the complex problems in coastal science and engineering using state-of-the-art numerical models providing realistic estimates, cost effective and having immense potential in operational weather centers. This review also deals with some of the important issues and future directions in wind-wave modeling studies such as improvements required in momentum transfer, bottom dissipation, and rain–wave interaction effects that require detailed understanding and concentrated efforts.","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/s2345737619500040","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46444391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper focusses on the recent tsunami in Indonesia and the factors led to the mass killing. We also discussed the failure of early warning systems, steps, methods, and technologies, in general, to improve the early warning systems in the future to mitigate the loss of lives and property during these impending disasters. We believe that this paper is timely as Indonesia has seen one of the worst tsunamis in recent years and the threat is still on. Hence, we stress the importance of improving and strengthening the existing early warning systems.
{"title":"Are we in the right path in using early warning systems?","authors":"Venugopal R. Thandlam, A. Rutgersson, H. Rahaman","doi":"10.31223/osf.io/hxbwp","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31223/osf.io/hxbwp","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focusses on the recent tsunami in Indonesia and the factors led to the mass killing. We also discussed the failure of early warning systems, steps, methods, and technologies, in general, to improve the early warning systems in the future to mitigate the loss of lives and property during these impending disasters. We believe that this paper is timely as Indonesia has seen one of the worst tsunamis in recent years and the threat is still on. Hence, we stress the importance of improving and strengthening the existing early warning systems.","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46085930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-03DOI: 10.1142/S2345737619020019
J. Popke, Kevon Rhiney
{"title":"Introduction to Special Issue on The Caribbean after Irma and Maria: Climate, Development & the Post-Hurricane Context","authors":"J. Popke, Kevon Rhiney","doi":"10.1142/S2345737619020019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737619020019","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/S2345737619020019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41920851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-03DOI: 10.1142/S2345737619400025
A. Baptiste, H. Devonish
Hurricane Irma caused significant destruction to the Caribbean during the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season. In its aftermath, many of these Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are left with the dilemma of seeking ways to rebuild in some cases entire nation states. Using the case study of Antigua and Barbuda, where Barbuda was the first Caribbean island to receive a direct hit from Hurricane Irma, the paper begins to explore the ways in which the global system of exploitation of SIDS exacerbates internal historical conflicts which is a manifestation of climate injustices. Specifically, the Barbudans’ relative privilege in having inherited communal land rights have become, for the government, the barrier standing in the way of the only alternative funding sources for reconstruction, foreign tourism investment. Using the theoretical underpinnings of climate justice, we argue that the causers of climate change, who are generally the inheritors of the historic colonization, exploitation and impoverishment of these states, will effectively benefit from the intensity of Hurricane Irma, given that they will eventually get access to Barbudan land if the communal land rights are revoked.
{"title":"The Manifestation of Climate Injustices: The Post-Hurricane Irma Conflicts Surrounding Barbuda’s Communal Land Tenure","authors":"A. Baptiste, H. Devonish","doi":"10.1142/S2345737619400025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737619400025","url":null,"abstract":"Hurricane Irma caused significant destruction to the Caribbean during the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season. In its aftermath, many of these Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are left with the dilemma of seeking ways to rebuild in some cases entire nation states. Using the case study of Antigua and Barbuda, where Barbuda was the first Caribbean island to receive a direct hit from Hurricane Irma, the paper begins to explore the ways in which the global system of exploitation of SIDS exacerbates internal historical conflicts which is a manifestation of climate injustices. Specifically, the Barbudans’ relative privilege in having inherited communal land rights have become, for the government, the barrier standing in the way of the only alternative funding sources for reconstruction, foreign tourism investment. Using the theoretical underpinnings of climate justice, we argue that the causers of climate change, who are generally the inheritors of the historic colonization, exploitation and impoverishment of these states, will effectively benefit from the intensity of Hurricane Irma, given that they will eventually get access to Barbudan land if the communal land rights are revoked.","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/S2345737619400025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44241195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-03DOI: 10.1142/S2345737619400013
Ramon Borges-Mendez, C. Caron
The term resilience has saliency in the scholarship and policy on post-disaster management and disaster-risk reduction. In this paper, we assess the use of resilience as a concept for post-disaster reconstruction in Puerto Rico and offer a critique of the standard definition. This critique focuses on the primacy of Puerto Rico’s colonial relations with the United States meshed with decades of political mismanagement of the island’s economic and natural resources by local authorities and political parties. For resilience to be a useful conceptual device, we argue for decolonizing resilience and show the relevance of such an argument through a case study of the island’s coffee-growing region. Decolonizing resilience exposes power inequities and the individuating nature of post-disaster reconstruction to illustrate how collective action and direct participation of local actors and communities carves out autonomous spaces of engagement. Decolonizing resilience necessitates a contextualized analysis of resilience, taking into account “the politics of resilience” embedded in the island’s colonial history and the policy bottlenecks it creates.
{"title":"Decolonizing Resilience: The Case of Reconstructing the Coffee Region of Puerto Rico After Hurricanes Irma and Maria","authors":"Ramon Borges-Mendez, C. Caron","doi":"10.1142/S2345737619400013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737619400013","url":null,"abstract":"The term resilience has saliency in the scholarship and policy on post-disaster management and disaster-risk reduction. In this paper, we assess the use of resilience as a concept for post-disaster reconstruction in Puerto Rico and offer a critique of the standard definition. This critique focuses on the primacy of Puerto Rico’s colonial relations with the United States meshed with decades of political mismanagement of the island’s economic and natural resources by local authorities and political parties. For resilience to be a useful conceptual device, we argue for decolonizing resilience and show the relevance of such an argument through a case study of the island’s coffee-growing region. Decolonizing resilience exposes power inequities and the individuating nature of post-disaster reconstruction to illustrate how collective action and direct participation of local actors and communities carves out autonomous spaces of engagement. Decolonizing resilience necessitates a contextualized analysis of resilience, taking into account “the politics of resilience” embedded in the island’s colonial history and the policy bottlenecks it creates.","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/S2345737619400013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46701686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-03DOI: 10.1142/S2345737619400049
C. Look, Erin Friedman, Geneviève Godbout
Antiguans and Barbudans have both raised concerns over the disaster recovery solutions put in place to mitigate damages sustained during Hurricane Irma in September 2017. In Barbuda, the potential loss of commonhold land ownership and the possibility of a land grab by foreign investors has tended to portray the island as a victim of disaster capitalism rather than as a resilient community. At the same time, neither island has addressed its vulnerabilities to future extreme events through any substantive legislative response, or immediate policy shifts. While it is vital that we attend to the exploitation of vulnerable populations and the efforts of economic restructuring that follow a disaster to better understand the impact of major weather events, we propose that the threat to commonhold land tenure in Barbuda and the legislative overreach of Antigua’s government on the matter following Hurricane Irma can be understood in terms of various landscape legacies and continuities rooted in ongoing struggles over land in Antigua and Barbuda spanning the periods of slavery, emancipation, and post-colonial independence. This paper situates the past with distinction in order to understand the resilience of land tenure regimes, and the ways in which this resilience affects the quality of post-disaster response in the post-Irma era. Using path dependency theory, we examine the tensions over land tenure in response to Hurricane Irma within the framework of colonial legacies of land rights. More specifically, this paper attempts to examine how these land tenure regimes took shape, and in what ways it has been contested and resisted over time. Our findings demonstrate how the imposition of modern land-use solutions atop a landscape shaped by 18th- and 19th-century practices complicates the mandate to plan for and mitigate the impacts of future disasters. The impact of Hurricane Irma on Barbuda further shows how resistance to legislative change might result in a form of ecological restraint rooted in social-cohesion and commonhold land tenure that is now coming under threat.
{"title":"The Resilience of Land Tenure Regimes During Hurricane Irma: How Colonial Legacies Impact Disaster Response and Recovery in Antigua and Barbuda","authors":"C. Look, Erin Friedman, Geneviève Godbout","doi":"10.1142/S2345737619400049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737619400049","url":null,"abstract":"Antiguans and Barbudans have both raised concerns over the disaster recovery solutions put in place to mitigate damages sustained during Hurricane Irma in September 2017. In Barbuda, the potential loss of commonhold land ownership and the possibility of a land grab by foreign investors has tended to portray the island as a victim of disaster capitalism rather than as a resilient community. At the same time, neither island has addressed its vulnerabilities to future extreme events through any substantive legislative response, or immediate policy shifts. While it is vital that we attend to the exploitation of vulnerable populations and the efforts of economic restructuring that follow a disaster to better understand the impact of major weather events, we propose that the threat to commonhold land tenure in Barbuda and the legislative overreach of Antigua’s government on the matter following Hurricane Irma can be understood in terms of various landscape legacies and continuities rooted in ongoing struggles over land in Antigua and Barbuda spanning the periods of slavery, emancipation, and post-colonial independence. This paper situates the past with distinction in order to understand the resilience of land tenure regimes, and the ways in which this resilience affects the quality of post-disaster response in the post-Irma era. Using path dependency theory, we examine the tensions over land tenure in response to Hurricane Irma within the framework of colonial legacies of land rights. More specifically, this paper attempts to examine how these land tenure regimes took shape, and in what ways it has been contested and resisted over time. Our findings demonstrate how the imposition of modern land-use solutions atop a landscape shaped by 18th- and 19th-century practices complicates the mandate to plan for and mitigate the impacts of future disasters. The impact of Hurricane Irma on Barbuda further shows how resistance to legislative change might result in a form of ecological restraint rooted in social-cohesion and commonhold land tenure that is now coming under threat.","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/S2345737619400049","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44977880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-03DOI: 10.1142/S2345737619400037
A. Moulton, M. Machado
The 2017 hurricane season caused widespread devastation across Central America, the Caribbean and the South-Eastern United States. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria were among the most intense Atlantic hurricanes and the costliest for the Circum-Caribbean region. For the small islands of the Caribbean, the hurricanes highlighted the acute vulnerability to climate change. The scale of physical ruin and level of social dislocation, however, do not just reflect the outcomes of a natural hazard. Continued structural dependency and outright entanglement in colonial relationships complicated recovery and coordination of aid to affected communities across the region. We argue that the experiences and outcomes of hazards like Harvey, Irma and Maria therefore invite examinations of persisting colonial power dynamics in discussions of climate hazard. Using Foucauldian theory for such an examination, we problematize simply championing resilience, without noting the possibilities for its use as a biopolitical regime of governing life. Such an appraisal, we suggest, might clarify a path toward reparations and climate change justice.
{"title":"Bouncing Forward After Irma and Maria: Acknowledging Colonialism, Problematizing Resilience and Thinking Climate Justice","authors":"A. Moulton, M. Machado","doi":"10.1142/S2345737619400037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737619400037","url":null,"abstract":"The 2017 hurricane season caused widespread devastation across Central America, the Caribbean and the South-Eastern United States. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria were among the most intense Atlantic hurricanes and the costliest for the Circum-Caribbean region. For the small islands of the Caribbean, the hurricanes highlighted the acute vulnerability to climate change. The scale of physical ruin and level of social dislocation, however, do not just reflect the outcomes of a natural hazard. Continued structural dependency and outright entanglement in colonial relationships complicated recovery and coordination of aid to affected communities across the region. We argue that the experiences and outcomes of hazards like Harvey, Irma and Maria therefore invite examinations of persisting colonial power dynamics in discussions of climate hazard. Using Foucauldian theory for such an examination, we problematize simply championing resilience, without noting the possibilities for its use as a biopolitical regime of governing life. Such an appraisal, we suggest, might clarify a path toward reparations and climate change justice.","PeriodicalId":73748,"journal":{"name":"Journal of extreme events","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/S2345737619400037","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44146098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}