Setting the Stage for Disaster

Author(s):  
Gregory L. Simon

This chapter focuses on government retrenchment, conservative homeowner politics, and state tax restructuring spanning the 1950s to 1980s. It highlights the scalar dimensions of vulnerability-in-production. In the face of a postwar suburban growth politics—culminating in the overthrow of conventional structures of taxation—metropolitan core areas like Oakland experienced tax reduced revenue growth rates, as well as depleted operating budgets within tax-dependent city fire services leading to reduced fire department budgets up to and during the Tunnel Fire. In order to generate new sources of tax revenue, city officials pursued large housing developments within high fire risk areas. The gradual increase in exposure to wildfires in the Tunnel Fire area is thus deeply intertwined within California's broader tax-revolt political movement. The chapter challenges spatially and temporally truncated explanations of fire vulnerability that fail to grapple with complex socioeconomic factors undergirding the placement of homes in areas that are already susceptible to wildfire. It ends by illustrating how factors generating vulnerability and affluence in the Tunnel Fire area also contribute to the production of vulnerabilities throughout the rest of Oakland.

Author(s):  
Gregory L. Simon

This chapter continues the discussion of post-disaster reconstruction and fire mitigation efforts by presenting two examples that illustrate the continued extraction of profits from these high-risk areas. First, home reconstruction data in California and Colorado reveal that rebuilt homes are both bigger and more proximate to one another than prefire structures. Not only do these larger homes increase property values; they also increase overall fuel load and potential fire spread between structures. The chapter reviews important political economic considerations leading to this reconstruction outcome that has in turn injected more fuel and value onto the landscape. Second, it considers the emergence of the private firefighting industry to illustrate yet another group seeking to extract profits from high-risk residential landscapes across the West. The chapter shows that fire-prone landscapes like the Tunnel Fire area are notable for their ability to generate wealth both before and after hazard events. Over time financial opportunism has contributed to the formation of vulnerable communities while simultaneously incentivizing efforts to mitigate those very same risks. This marks a financially viable self-fulfilling prophecy: profits in production, profits in protection.


Author(s):  
Gregory L. Simon

This chapter illuminates how the production of vulnerability proceeds through—and is supported by—interconnected economic development and resource use activities across city and regional scales. It explores the connection between lucrative resource extraction, realty speculation, reforestation, and home construction activities in the Tunnel Fire area. These Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire activities and resulting forms of vulnerability are linked to the development of the San Francisco Bay Area. The historically resource-rich Oakland Hills “countryside” played a crucial role in shaping and facilitating San Francisco's post-Gold Rush economic ascendance. These resource-provisioning activities generated roadways that several decades later fell under the speculative eye of housing developers in search of suburban homes and vacation retreats for the region's new elite. This transition from resource extraction to real estate speculation was instantiated in the landscape, as several logging paths in Oakland became arterial roads populated by municipal infrastructure, flammable tree cover, and eventually a vast collection of new home developments in high fire risk areas.


Author(s):  
Anna Holzscheiter

This chapter will introduce health as a policy field and carve out the implications of limited statehood for health governance. It will discuss broader trends in the literature on health governance in areas of limited statehood and introduce major controversies revolving around the notions of effectiveness, legitimacy, and sustainability. The chapter starts by discussing different definitions of health governance, arguing that the differentiation between domestic and global health governance makes little sense in the face of contemporary developments. It further engages with the question of which actors are involved in health governance, their motivations, resources, and core areas of activity. The chapter goes on to discuss how limited statehood affects health governance—nationally and globally—using the case of polio eradication. The last part will introduce the reader to issues of effectiveness and legitimacy with a particular focus on contemporary debates about the legitimacy of non-state actors in global health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 2586
Author(s):  
Sara Limeira de Santana Epifanio ◽  
Ananda Santa Rosa ◽  
Kamila Vieira Moraes ◽  
Ruth Elias de Paula Laranja ◽  
Rafael Rodrigues Franca

 Para 2020, o temor das instituições ambientais e da sociedade civil, quanto a possibilidade da ocorrência de queimadas, foi amplificado em razão das notícias veiculadas nos meios de comunicação. Prognósticos da propagação do fogo associados às avaliações climáticas e ambientais são necessários para evitar interpretações equivocadas, o uso indevido do recurso público e o adentramento desnecessário de pessoas nas terras indígenas, quando há uma epidemia no país que pode elevar o risco de contágio com os povos indígenas. Neste sentido, o objetivo deste artigo foi analisar anomalias de precipitação, o risco de fogo e a vulnerabilidade dos povos indígenas à COVID-19 frente às operações de combate aos incêndios florestais em terras com atuação de brigadas do Prevfogo. Para isto, analisou-se as taxas mensais de contagiados, as áreas de risco de fogo alto-crítico e a climatologia de precipitação até 30 de junho de 2020. Excetuando zonas que abrangem o Pantanal e parte do Brasil Central, as áreas estão com registros de risco de fogo e de chuvas dentro da normalidade. Já a curva de contágio está ascendente na maioria dos locais. Em caso de incêndios e da necessidade de estabelecimento de operações de combate com entrada de pessoas nas terras indígenas, as taxas de contágio entre os povos podem ser agravadas, sendo aconselhado evitar ao máximo o não contato. Por isto, recomenda-se ao Ibama e a Funai a formulação de planos estratégicos para mitigar impactos socioambientais.Palavras-chave - COVID-19,  Risco de fogo, povos indígenas, políticas públicas. Analysis of the Fire Scenario and COVID-19 in Indigenous Lands with The Hiring of Forest Brigades in 2020 A B S T R A C TFor 2020, the fear of civil society and environmental institutions regarding the possibility of fire occurring was amplified due to the news published in the media. Predictions of fire spread associated with climate and environmental assessments are necessary to avoid misinterpretation, waste of public resources, and unnecessary entry of people into indigenous lands while there is a pandemic that could increase the risk of contagion in indigenous people. The purpose of this article was to analyze the monthly precipitation, the fire risk, and the vulnerability of indigenous peoples to COVID-19 in case of operations to combat wildfires in indigenous lands with firefighters hired by Prevfogo. For this, the monthly rates of COVID-19 contagious, the high-critical fire risk areas, and the climatology of precipitation were evaluated until June 30, 2020. Except in the zones that cover the Pantanal and part of Brasil Central, the other areas have normal fire risk and rain records. The contagion curve is increasing in most places. In the event of a fire that needs to establish combat operations with firefighters entering in the indigenous lands, rates of contagion with indigenous peoples may increase, suggesting non-contact. For this reason, Ibama and Funai are recommended to formulate strategic plans to mitigate socio-environmental impacts.Keywords - COVID-19, Fire risk, Indigenous people, public policies.


Author(s):  
Joseph Locke

By reconstructing the religious crusade to achieve prohibition in Texas, Making the Bible Belt reveals how southern religious leaders overcame long-standing anticlerical traditions and built a powerful political movement that injected religion irreversibly into public life. H.L. Mencken coined the term “Bible Belt” in the 1920s to capture the peculiar alliance of religion and public life in the American South, but the reality he described was only the closing chapter of a long historical process. Through the politics of prohibition, and in the face of bitter resistance, a complex but shared commitment to expanding the power and scope of religion transformed southern evangelicals’ inward-looking restraints into an aggressive, self-assertive, and unapologetic political activism. Early defeats forced prohibitionist clergy to recast their campaign as a broader effort that churned notions of history, race, gender, and religion into a moral crusade that elevated ambitious leaders such as the pugnacious fundamentalist J. Frank Norris and US senator Morris Sheppard, the “Father of National Prohibition,” into national figures. By exploring the controversies surrounding the religious support of prohibition in Texas, Making the Bible Belt reconstructs the purposeful, decades-long campaign to politicize southern religion, hints at the historical origins of the religious right, and explores a compelling and transformative moment in American history.


2021 ◽  
pp. 211-230
Author(s):  
Alma Rachel Heckman

This chapter examines efforts of Jews and Muslims in Morocco to reconcile communism with Moroccan nationalism predicated on Islam, centered on the figure of the King as the amir al-mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful) through the long 1960s. The stakes for Jewish and Muslim communists in this setting were high, including the need to demonstrate authenticity and legitimacy of their political movement in the face of accusations of communism as a foreign, colonial, and thus inorganic movement within Morocco. The long 1960s included a major leftist student uprising in 1965, several constitutional crises, and two attempted coups, all of which heightened the existential tension of the Moroccan left within the Islamist monarchy.


mezurashii ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresia - Arianti

Abstrak: Studi ini didasarkan pada serial TV Oshin yang disiarkan perdana pada 1983. Oshin, tokoh utama, lahir di Jepang pada tahun 1900 pada periode Meiji dan menghabiskan masa remajanya pada periode Taisho. Kebanyakan penelitian mengenai Jepang sebelumnya belum memasukan Oshin dan Face-Threatenig Acts sebagai landasan studi. Disinilah kekurangan yang akan diisi oleh studi ini dimana studi ini akan menunjukan sisi gelap Jepang pada periode Meiji dan Taisho melalui Face-Threatening Acts yang terdapat dalam dorama Oshin. Hasil studi menunjukan bahwa Jepang mengalami masalah kemiskinan pada zaman Meiji serta permasalahan politk pada zaman Taisho. Studi ini menunjukan bahwa Face-Threatening Acts dapat merepresentasikan latar belakang tempat dan waktu dari sebuah cerita.Kata kunci: Oshin, Face-Threatening Acts, periode Meiji, periode Taisho Abstract: This study is based on a Japanese TV series titled Oshin which was firstly aired in 1983. Oshin, the main character, was born in Japan in 1900 during Meiji period and spent her teenagehood in Taisho period. Previous studies examining Japan mostly do not include Oshin and Face Threatening Acts in the methods/materials used. These are the gaps the current study is fulfilling since this study aims to investigate Oshin’s portrayal of Japan, by using Face Threatening Acts theory, which can reveal Japan’s dark history to people outside Japan. Findings show that face threatening acts in the conversations amongst the characters reflect Japan’s poverty in Meiji period. The face threatening acts also reveal the “underground” political movement emerged in Taisho period as well as laborers’ bad working condition. This study shows how face threatening acts in a conversation can reflect the condition of the place and time when the conversation occurs. This study will also open the society’s eyes on what happened in Japan during Meiji and Taisho periods so that more people can learn from the history.Keywords: Oshin, Face-Threatening Acts, Meiji period, Taisho period


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. John Braun ◽  
Bruce L. Jones ◽  
Jonathan S. W. Lee ◽  
Douglas G. Woolford ◽  
B. Mike Wotton

This paper presents an analysis of ignition and burn risk due to wildfire in a region of Ontario, Canada using a methodology which is applicable to the entire boreal forest region. A generalized additive model was employed to obtain ignition risk probabilities and a burn probability map using only historic ignition and fire area data. Constructing fire shapes according to an accurate physical model for fire spread, using a fuel map and realistic weather scenarios is possible with the Prometheus fire growth simulation model. Thus, we applied the Burn-P3 implementation of Prometheus to construct a more accurate burn probability map. The fuel map for the study region was verified and corrected. Burn-P3 simulations were run under the settings (related to weather) recommended in the software documentation and were found to be fairly robust to errors in the fuel map, but simulated fire sizes were substantially larger than those observed in the historic record. By adjusting the input parameters to reflect suppression effects, we obtained a model which gives more appropriate fire sizes. The resulting burn probability map suggests that risk of fire in the study area is much lower than what is predicted by Burn-P3 under its recommended settings.


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