scholarly journals “I Will Show You My Faith by My Works”: Addressing the Nexus between Philosophical Theodicy and Human Suffering and Loss in Contexts of ‘Natural’ Disaster

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Roger Philip Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Catastrophic Earthquake ◽  
The Caribbean

As a practical theologian and researcher in the field of ‘natural’ disasters, as well as being a disaster responder chaplain, I am often confronted by, and have to confront, the nexus between theology/philosophy and “real life” in extremely traumatic contexts. The extreme suffering that is often the consequence of catastrophic natural disasters warrants solutions that can help vulnerable populations recover and adapt to live safely with natural hazards. For many practice-based responders, speculative theological/philosophical reflections around situations that are often human-caused seem predominantly vacuous exercises, potentially diverting attention away from the empiricism of causal human agency. In this article, I explore a middle ground involving a nuanced methodological approach to theodicy that is practical but no less intellectually demanding, that is theological more than philosophical, practical more than theoretical; a middle ground that also takes seriously the human culpability as causal for the human, and some would say the divine, suffering from disasters. I will include in this exploration my ethnographic fieldwork following the catastrophic earthquake to hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti in 2010.

Natural Hazards Governance Practices and Key Natural Hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivis García
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Caribbean

Along with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean is among the geographic regions most exposed and vulnerable to the occurrence of disasters. The vulnerability is explained by geography and climate, but also by prevailing poverty and inequality. Year after year, multiple disasters such as landslides, hurricanes, floods, rains, droughts, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, among others, threaten the region. Natural disasters reveal the deficiencies of infrastructure and essential services. In particular, they highlight the lack of an institutional framework for effective governance with clearly defined goals of how to prevent, respond to, and reconstruct after a natural catastrophe. One of the priorities of governments in the region is to achieve resilience—that is, to strengthen the capacity to resist, adapt, and recover from the effects of natural disasters. To be able to accomplish this, governments need to prepare before a natural disaster strikes. Therefore, disaster risk management is critical. A fundamental element in the strategy of increasing resilience is good planning in general—that is, to reduce inequality, manage urbanization, and invest in necessary infrastructure such as energy, sewage, and water management. Because climate change increases the risk of disasters, it is generally understood that good governance practices can prevent further global warming. Governments might achieve this, for example, by investing in renewable energy and financing other environmentally friendly initiatives. Unfortunately, most current governance models in Latin America and the Caribbean are characterized by bureaucratic structures that are fragmented into different sectors and whose actors do not have much interaction between them. With technical assistance from organizations, such as the World Bank and the United Nations, stakeholders in Latin America and the Caribbean are learning how to develop plans that encourage the collaboration of multiple sectors (e.g., transportation, housing) and improve the working relationships between various institutions (e.g. local associations, NGOs, private and public organizations). To be adequately prepared for a disaster, it is necessary to establish a network of actors that can engage quickly in decision-making and coordinate effectively between local, regional, and national levels.

scholarly journals (P1-86) Socioeconomic Impact of Natural Disasters in China

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s126-s127
Author(s):  
W. Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Disaster Mitigation ◽  
Socioeconomic Impact ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Chinese Yuan

IntroductionChina is one of the countries most affected by disasters caused by natural hazards. Disasters comprise an important restricting factor for economic and social development.MethodsRetrospective analysis was performed based on the epidemiological data of disasters caused by natural hazards in recent two decades.ResultsThe deadliest disaster that was reviewed was the Sichuan, Wenchuan earthquake on 12 May 2008 with a death toll of 88,928. Floods were the the primary natural hazard resulting in disaster in China. The economic loss caused by natural disasters was huge, the Sichuan earthquake alone resulted in an economic loss of 845.1 billion Chinese Yuan. However, psychosocial factors did not receive attention by Chinese Government and academics.ConclusionsThe characteristics and impact of disasters should be analyzed to scientifically provide useful information for natural disaster mitigation in China.

scholarly journals Shifting the Blame: Storm and Wildfire Dramatic Images in American News Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Aris Munandar ◽  
Amin Basuki
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
News Media ◽  
Word List ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Impact Action ◽  
Media Frames ◽  
The Media ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Current Impact

Some media frames might be likely to seek to evoke a certain sentiment, and that natural disaster coverage by the media focuses on the current impact of disasters. In their coverage, American news media use polar sentiment words to create bleeding images of natural disasters, potentially counter-productive to the wisdom of dealing with the natural disaster. Identifying the sentiment words that lead to a misperception of natural disasters can help journalists adopt the wisdom that natural disasters are not a human enemy. The corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) reported in this article investigates the American media's issues for dramatic reporting and the polar sentiment words utilized in the framing. The corpus is built from 100 news articles reporting wildfires and storms by ten major online American news media published from January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2020. It uses AntConc to generate word-list and word-link from which it identifies the dominant issues. Subsequently, it compares the AntConc word-list with A List of Sentiment Words to reveal the tones and dramatic imaging. The findings show that the dominant issues in storm reporting are description, impact, and prediction, while wildfire reporting are cause, impact, action, and prediction. The negative polar words produce dramatic images of storm as a violent beast and wildfire as a vengeful invader. Such description is provocative to blaming natural disasters as a cause of human suffering rather than improving our behaviors to reduce the suffering. Thus, it is counter-productive to acquiring wisdom for dealing with natural disasters.

Causes of the triggering of Chamoli glacier burst of 7th February 2021 in Uttarakhand, India

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 60-67
Author(s):  
Prakash Biswakarma ◽  
Kush Kumar ◽  
Varun Joshi ◽  
Deepesh Goyal
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Himalayan Region ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Indian Himalayan Region ◽  
Outburst Floods ◽  
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods ◽  
The World ◽  
The Himalaya

The Himalaya, the youngest and the tallest folded mountain range of the world, is frequently affected by natural disasters.18 In the form of flash floods, cloudbursts or glacial lake outburst floods, the entire Himalayan region is highly vulnerable to natural hazards. In this context, the State of Uttarakhand of the Indian Himalayan Region has been the most vulnerable one among all the natural disaster-affected states in India.

When Mother Earth Rises Up

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Sacchi ◽  
Paolo Riva ◽  
Marco Brambilla
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Disaster Victims ◽  
Willingness To Help ◽  
Mother Earth

Anthropomorphization is the tendency to ascribe humanlike features and mental states, such as free will and consciousness, to nonhuman beings or inanimate agents. Two studies investigated the consequences of the anthropomorphization of nature on people’s willingness to help victims of natural disasters. Study 1 (N = 96) showed that the humanization of nature correlated negatively with willingness to help natural disaster victims. Study 2 (N = 52) tested for causality, showing that the anthropomorphization of nature reduced participants’ intentions to help the victims. Overall, our findings suggest that humanizing nature undermines the tendency to support victims of natural disasters.

Law on Natural Disasters

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ki-Gab Park
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
International Community ◽  
The State ◽  
Efficient Tool ◽  
International Solidarity ◽  
Cooperation Mechanism ◽  
Prior Consent ◽  
Humanitarian Crises

The chapter argues that natural disasters are common concerns in the international community. At the same time, the current international cooperation mechanism, based on the principle of equal sovereignty, require prior consent by the state affected by a natural disaster. Unfortunately, this is not always an efficient tool for the protection of victims. The globalization of problems and the proliferation of humanitarian crises make the veritable solidarity of the international community increasingly necessary, and therefore another high value, namely international solidarity or community obligations, should create direct and immediate obligations for all members of the international community. The main object of this chapter is to discuss the future-oriented direction of the law on natural disasters. This means, first, to ascertain the lex lata, especially customary rules. The chapter further offers some suggestions on possible ways for the international community to provide more effective relief for victims of natural disasters.

scholarly journals Mobility in community-dwelling older adults; what are its determinants?

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiebren Zijlstra ◽  
Eleftheria Giannouli
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Specific Choice ◽  
Mobility Studies ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Community Dwelling Older Adults ◽  
Potential Mobility ◽  
Present Understanding

Abstract Background Based on a conceptual framework, Kuspinar and colleagues analysed life-space mobility in community-dwelling older adults. However, a number of earlier mobility studies that used the same framework remained undiscussed. This correspondence article addresses similarities and differences between these studies, as well as highlight issues that need to be addressed to improve our understanding of mobility determinants in older adults. Findings Despite differences in methodological approach as well as in detailed results, the studies share one important outcome: regardless of the specific choice of potential mobility determinants, only a low to moderate proportion of mobility could be explained. Conclusions Our present understanding of the determinants of mobility in community-dwelling older adults is limited. A consistent terminology that takes into account the different aspects of mobility; the use of objective methods to assess real-life mobility; and monitoring changes in real-life mobility in response to interventions will contribute to furthering our understanding of mobility determinants.

scholarly journals Do Long-Term Natural Disasters Influence Social Trust? Empirical Evidence from China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7280
Author(s):  
Yao Li ◽  
Haoyang Li ◽  
Jianqing Ruan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Flood Frequency ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact

The natural environment is one of the most critical factors that profoundly influences human races. Natural disasters may have enormous effects on individual psychological characteristics. Using China’s long-term historical natural disaster dataset from 1470 to 2000 and data from a household survey in 2012, we explore whether long-term natural disasters affect social trust. We find that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between long-term natural disaster frequency and social trust. We further examine the impact of long-term natural disaster frequency on social trust in specific groups of people. Social trust in neighbors and doctors is stronger where long-term natural disasters are more frequent. Our results are robust after we considering the geographical difference. The effect of long-term natural disasters remains positively significant after we divide the samples based on geographical location. Interestingly, the impact of long-term flood frequency is only significant in the South and the impact of long-term drought frequency is only significant in the North.

Potential of sociohydrology for studying natural disasters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franciele Maria Vanelli ◽  
Masato Kobiyama
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Disaster Studies ◽  
Dichotomous Thinking ◽  
Bidirectional Interactions

<p>Natural disasters refer to disruptions of the society’s functioning as result of negative interactions between natural hazards and social organization. Meanwhile, sociohydrology is dedicated to understanding the coupled human-water systems feedbacks. Both natural disaster studies and sociohydrology focus on understanding bidirectional interactions between environmental and social aspects, which is characterized by a dichotomous thinking pattern. In this context, natural disaster studies and sociohydrology have many parallels. In the present research, we conducted an exploratory research from two central arguments: (i) sociohydrology development can contribute to understanding how to disaster risk reduction by converting negative impacts into a harmonious coexistence between natural and social interactions; and (ii) water is relevant to all types of natural disasters in a direct or an indirect manner and is also fundamental in disaster response. Advances in knowledge about bidirectional interactions between environmental and social aspects overcoming dichotomous thinking pattern can update the sociohydrology development and the concepts commonly applied to natural disaster and risk reduction. We propose that any local community should use the school catchment concept that refers to any experimental catchment which serves for scientific researches and environmental education activities. The partnership between natural and social scientists and society is a challenge. Thus, school catchment construction and use can assist to overcome dichotomous thinking such as natural × social aspects, quantitative × qualitative analyses, systematic × non-systematic data, global × local spatial scales, and structural × non-structural measures. Hence, sociohydrology can support the integrated management of water resources and natural disasters and risks, contributing to achieving the Sendai Framework goals and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030. On the other hand, natural disaster studies can contribute to the interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary development of sociohydrology. Therefore, we conclude that sociohydrology has the potential, not yet explored, for contributing to natural disaster studies and vice and versa.</p>

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