GLST-300: Midterm Study Guide

Geography

This academic discipline brings a focus on vulnerability and power relations between the Global North and Global South, as well as mapping and remote sensing.

Economics

One contribution from this discipline is a cost/benefit analysis of disaster risk reduction.

Anthropology

This academic discipline contributes a focus on how cultures and societies adapt to disasters and a non-Western focus.

Urban Planning

This discipline contributes the promotion of risk-aware land use practices such as directing development away from hazardous areas and maintaining natural protections from disasters (such as wetlands).

Psychology

This discipline contributes research on the mental health effects of disasters.

Political Science and Public Administration

This discipline contributes research showing that state and local officials don't have incentives to invest in disaster prevention or risk reduction.

Steve Raynor identified four strategies that organizations and institutions use to keep "uncomfortable knowledge" about hazards and disasters from coming to light.

Dismissal, Denial, Diversion, Displacement

Environmental sociologist Liam Downey points to the role of global organizations like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as increasing the impacts of disasters in all of the following ways -

monopoly power over decision making, Cultivating ignorance, Shifting environmental costs

Eunice Newton Foote

First scientist to make the connection between Carbon Dioxide and a warming planet, CO2 retained heat

The antidote to ignorance is

disclosure

Disaster Vulnerability

The degree to which different classes in society are differentially at risk, both in terms of the probability of occurrence of an extreme physical event and the degree to which the community absorbs the effects of extreme physical events and helps different classes to recover

Dr. Susan Cutter

Vulnerability Science, The probability of suffering the negative effects of disasters and to recover, focuses on vulnerabilities associated with poverty, inequality, race, ethnicity, gender

Robert D Bullard

environmental justice, being poor and otherwise marginalized... translates into increased vulnerability to exposure to toxic substances and other environmental 'bads

What organization first funded disaster research in the USA?

US Military

_________ is "the degree to which different classes in society are differentially at risk."

Vulnerability

The differences between emergencies, disasters, and catastrophes include:

the severity of their impacts, spatial scope, which entities respond and how,

recovery challenges

What is one of the main critiques of early disaster and hazard research in the US?

Disaster research did not focus enough on the differentiated experiences of vulnerable populations in the global economy.

The Pressure and Release Model (PAR) highlights how root causes, dynamic pressures and unsafe conditions....

combine with a natural hazard to create a disaster.

_______ refers to the ability of societies, communities, households, etc. to absorb disaster shocks, to cope with disaster impacts, and successfully to adapt in the aftermath of disasters.

Resilience

Yale's "Six Americas" research refers to

Attitudes about climate change in the U.S.

Emergencies

include incidents that may cause deaths and injuries but that are localized, do not create large-scale disruption, and are typically handled by public safety agencies such as fire and police departments.

Disasters

incidents that have severe consequences that include deaths, injuries, and large scale social disruption. Responding organizations are multijurisdictional, intergovernmental, and typically bottom up. The public is significantly involved

Catastrophes

massive repercussions, which greatly exceed the capacity of stricken communities to respond, including long-lasting impacts that require protracted recovery efforts.

Hazard

anything that can cause harm - oil spill

risk

the probability of harm or negative impact

emergence

new patterns of behavior formed after disasters

disaster agent

physical force that leads to the occurence of a disaster (example: hurricanes/tornadoes)

which of the following is a dimension of vulnerability?

Hazardousness of place (geography),

Social vulnerability,

Built environment (Infrastructure)

Vulnerability is static and does not change over time.

False

Which of the following are reasons people were denied FEMA aid after Hurricane Harvey?

People whose homes were owned by incarcerated spouses, Exchange student, People who lost their ID in the storm, People not listed on a utility bill

aspects of social class

education, income, job

Often the conditions that affect post-disaster recovery outcomes are unrelated to the disaster itself or to disaster relief policies.

true

Why is an intersectional approach essential to understanding vulnerability?

Intersectionality takes into account the multiple causes of inequality - factors like race, social class, and gender - which combine to make individuals and groups more or less vulnerable.