Catastrophe in the Caribbean

Catastrophe in the Caribbean PDF Author: James Robert Whelan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description

Catastrophe in the Caribbean

Catastrophe in the Caribbean PDF Author: James Robert Whelan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description


How the World Breaks

How the World Breaks PDF Author: Stan Cox
Publisher: New Press, The
ISBN: 1620970120
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Get Book Here

Book Description
We've always lived on a dangerous planet, but its disasters aren't what they used to be. How the World Breaks gives us a breathtaking new view of crisis and recovery on the unstable landscapes of the Earth's hazard zones. Father and son authors Stan and Paul Cox take us to the explosive fire fronts of overheated Australia, the future lost city of Miami, the fights over whether and how to fortify New York City in the wake of Sandy, the Indonesian mud volcano triggered by natural gas drilling, and other communities that are reimagining their lives after quakes, superstorms, tornadoes, and landslides. In the very decade when we should be rushing to heal the atmosphere and address the enormous inequalities of risk, a strange idea has taken hold of global disaster policy: resilience. Its proponents say that threatened communities must simply learn the art of resilience, adapt to risk, and thereby survive. This doctrine obscures the human hand in creating disasters and requires the planet's most beleaguered people to absorb the rush of floodwaters and the crush of landslides, freeing the world economy to go on undisturbed. The Coxes' great contribution is to pull the disaster debate out of the realm of theory and into the muck and ash of the world's broken places. There we learn that change is more than mere adaptation and life is more than mere survival. Ultimately, How the World Breaks reveals why--unless we address the social, ecological, and economic roots of disaster--millions more people every year will find themselves spiraling into misery. It is essential reading for our time.

Paradise Destroyed

Paradise Destroyed PDF Author: Christopher M. Church
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496204492
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Get Book Here

Book Description
2017 Alf Andrew Heggoy Book Prize Winner Over a span of thirty years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe endured natural catastrophes from all the elements--earth, wind, fire, and water--as well as a collapsing sugar industry, civil unrest, and political intrigue. These disasters thrust a long history of societal and economic inequities into the public sphere as officials and citizens weighed the importance of social welfare, exploitative economic practices, citizenship rights, racism, and governmental responsibility. Paradise Destroyed explores the impact of natural and man-made disasters in the turn-of-the-century French Caribbean, examining the social, economic, and political implications of shared citizenship in times of civil unrest. French nationalists projected a fantasy of assimilation onto the Caribbean, where the predominately nonwhite population received full French citizenship and governmental representation. When disaster struck in the faraway French West Indies--whether the whirlwinds of a hurricane or a vast workers' strike--France faced a tempest at home as politicians, journalists, and economists, along with the general population, debated the role of the French state not only in the Antilles but in their own lives as well. Environmental disasters brought to the fore existing racial and social tensions and held to the fire France's ideological convictions of assimilation and citizenship. Christopher M. Church shows how France's "old colonies" laid claim to a definition of tropical French-ness amid the sociopolitical and cultural struggles of a fin de siècle France riddled with social unrest and political divisions.

Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean

Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean PDF Author: June Carolyn Erlick
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000335186
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Get Book Here

Book Description
Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean: Coping with Calamity explores the relationship between natural disasters and civil society, immigration and diaspora communities and the long-term impact on emotional health. Natural disasters shape history and society and, in turn, their long-range impact is determined by history and society. This is especially true in Latin America and the Caribbean, where climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of these extreme events. Ranging from pre-Columbian flooding in the Andes to the devastation of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, this book focuses on long-range recovery and recuperation, rather than short-term disaster relief. Written in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the author shows how lessons learned about civil society, governance, climate change, inequality and trauma from natural disasters have their echoes in the challenges of today’s uncertain world. This book is well-suited to the classroom and will be an asset to students of Latin American history, environmental history and historical memory.

Catastrophe Insurance Market in the Caribbean Region

Catastrophe Insurance Market in the Caribbean Region PDF Author: Philippe Auffret
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Casualty insurance
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Caribbean region suffers from a high degree of economic volatility. A history of repeated external and domestic shocks has made economic insecurity a major concern across the region. Of particular concern to all households, especially the poorest segments of the population, is the exposure to shocks that are generated by catastrophic events or natural disasters. The author develops a conceptual framework for risk management and shows that the insurance market for catastrophic risk in the Caribbean region remains a "thin" market characterized by "high" prices and "low" transfer of risk. He analyzes the possible market failures which could explain the lack of development of the catastrophe insurance market. Finally he outlines a set of recommendations for public sector interventions.

Natural Disaster Reduction in the Caribbean

Natural Disaster Reduction in the Caribbean PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781568069746
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book Here

Book Description
Minutes of a conference held in May 1992

Climate and Catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic World in the Age of Revolution

Climate and Catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic World in the Age of Revolution PDF Author: Sherry Johnson
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807834939
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
From 1750 to 1800, a critical period that saw the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Haitian Revolution, the Atlantic world experienced a series of environmental crises, including more frequent and severe hurricanes and extended drought. Drawing

Resilience in the Pacific and the Caribbean

Resilience in the Pacific and the Caribbean PDF Author: Simon Hollis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429667051
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book critically examines the global diffusion and local reception of resilience through the implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programmes in Pacific and Caribbean island states. Global efforts to strengthen local disaster resilience capacities have become a staple of international development activity in recent decades, yet the successful implementation of DRR projects designed to strengthen local resilience remains elusive. While there are pockets of success, a gap remains between global expectations and local realities. Through a critical realist study of global and local worldviews of resilience in the Pacific and Caribbean islands, this book argues that the global advocacy of DRR remains inadequate because of a failure to prioritise a person-orientated ethics in its conceptualization of disaster resilience. This regional comparison provides a valuable lens to understand the underlying social structures that makes resilience possible and the extent to which local governments, communities and persons interpret and modify their behaviour on risk when faced with the global message on resilience. This book will be of much interest to students of resilience, risk management, development studies, and area studies.

Sea of Storms

Sea of Storms PDF Author: Stuart B. Schwartz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691173605
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description
A panoramic social history of hurricanes in the Caribbean The diverse cultures of the Caribbean have been shaped as much by hurricanes as they have by diplomacy, commerce, or the legacy of colonial rule. In this panoramic work of social history, Stuart Schwartz examines how Caribbean societies have responded to the dangers of hurricanes, and how these destructive storms have influenced the region's history, from the rise of plantations, to slavery and its abolition, to migrations, racial conflict, and war. Taking readers from the voyages of Columbus to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Schwartz looks at the ethical, political, and economic challenges that hurricanes posed to the Caribbean’s indigenous populations and the different European peoples who ventured to the New World to exploit its riches. He describes how the United States provided the model for responding to environmental threats when it emerged as a major power and began to exert its influence over the Caribbean in the nineteenth century, and how the region’s governments came to assume greater responsibilities for prevention and relief, efforts that by the end of the twentieth century were being questioned by free-market neoliberals. Schwartz sheds light on catastrophes like Katrina by framing them within a long and contentious history of human interaction with the natural world. Spanning more than five centuries and drawing on extensive archival research in Europe and the Americas, Sea of Storms emphasizes the continuing role of race, social inequality, and economic ideology in the shaping of our responses to natural disaster.

Macroeconomic Implications of Natural Disasters in the Caribbean

Macroeconomic Implications of Natural Disasters in the Caribbean PDF Author: Tobias Rasmussen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 25

Get Book Here

Book Description
Each year natural disasters affect about 200 million people and cause about $50 billion in damage. This paper compares the incidence of natural disasters across countries along several dimensions and finds that the relative costs tend to be far higher in developing countries than in advanced economies. The analysis shows that small island states are especially vulnerable, with the countries of the Eastern Caribbean standing out as among the most disaster-prone in the world. Natural disasters are found to have had a discernible macroeconomic impact, including large effects on fiscal and external balances, pointing to an important role for precautionary measures.