Mass Starvation

Mass Starvation PDF Author: Alex de Waal
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509524703
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The world almost conquered famine. Until the 1980s, this scourge killed ten million people every decade, but by early 2000s mass starvation had all but disappeared. Today, famines are resurgent, driven by war, blockade, hostility to humanitarian principles and a volatile global economy. In Mass Starvation, world-renowned expert on humanitarian crisis and response Alex de Waal provides an authoritative history of modern famines: their causes, dimensions and why they ended. He analyses starvation as a crime, and breaks new ground in examining forced starvation as an instrument of genocide and war. Refuting the enduring but erroneous view that attributes famine to overpopulation and natural disaster, he shows how political decision or political failing is an essential element in every famine, while the spread of democracy and human rights, and the ending of wars, were major factors in the near-ending of this devastating phenomenon. Hard-hitting and deeply informed, Mass Starvation explains why man-made famine and the political decisions that could end it for good must once again become a top priority for the international community.

Mass Starvation

Mass Starvation PDF Author: Alex de Waal
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509524703
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book

Book Description
The world almost conquered famine. Until the 1980s, this scourge killed ten million people every decade, but by early 2000s mass starvation had all but disappeared. Today, famines are resurgent, driven by war, blockade, hostility to humanitarian principles and a volatile global economy. In Mass Starvation, world-renowned expert on humanitarian crisis and response Alex de Waal provides an authoritative history of modern famines: their causes, dimensions and why they ended. He analyses starvation as a crime, and breaks new ground in examining forced starvation as an instrument of genocide and war. Refuting the enduring but erroneous view that attributes famine to overpopulation and natural disaster, he shows how political decision or political failing is an essential element in every famine, while the spread of democracy and human rights, and the ending of wars, were major factors in the near-ending of this devastating phenomenon. Hard-hitting and deeply informed, Mass Starvation explains why man-made famine and the political decisions that could end it for good must once again become a top priority for the international community.

Surviving Droughts and Famines

Surviving Droughts and Famines PDF Author: Kevin Cunningham
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1410940942
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
Examines drought and famine around the world, citing such famous examples as the Dust Bowl and Australia's "Big Dry."

Late Victorian Holocausts

Late Victorian Holocausts PDF Author: Mike Davis
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1859843824
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
This global environmental and political history “will redefine the way we think about the European colonial project” (Observer). “ . . . sets the triumph of the late 19th-century Western imperialism in the context of catastrophic El Niño weather patterns at that time . . . groundbreaking, mind-stretching.” —The Independent Examining a series of El Niño-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China; and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites. Davis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants’ lives.

Famine, Drought, and Plagues

Famine, Drought, and Plagues PDF Author: Jane Walker
Publisher: Black Rabbit Books
ISBN: 9781932799088
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
In Famine, Drought, and Plagues, find out why droughts and plagues happen, the damage they cause, and how they and other disasters can lead to widespread famine. Book jacket.

Floods, Famines, and Emperors

Floods, Famines, and Emperors PDF Author: Brian Fagan
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786727683
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In 1997 and early 1998, one of the most powerful El Ninos ever recorded disrupted weather patterns all over the world. Europe suffered through a record freeze as the American West was hit with massive floods and snowstorms; in the western Pacific, meanwhile, some island nations literally went bone dry and had to have water flown in on transport planes. Such effects are not new: climatologists now know the El Nino and other climate anomalies have been disrupting weather patterns throughout history. But until recently, no one had asked how this new understanding of the global weather system related to archaeology and history. Droughts, floods, heat and cold put stress on cultures and force them to adapt. What determines whether they adapt successfully? How do these climate stresses affect a people's faith in the foundations of their society and the legitimacy of their rulers? How vulnerable is our own society to climate change? In this dazzlingly original new book, archaeologist Brian Fagan shows that short-term climate shifts have been a major -- and hitherto unrecognized -- force in history. El Nino-driven droughts have brought on the collapse of dynasties in Egypt; El Nino monsoon failures have caused historic famines in India; and El Nino floods have destroyed whole civilizations in Peru. Other short-term climate changes may have caused the mysterious abandonment of the Anasazi dwellings in the American Southwest and the collapse of the ancient Maya empire, as well as changed the course of European history. This beautifully written, groundbreaking book opens a new door on our understanding of historical events.

The Constant Catastrophe

The Constant Catastrophe PDF Author: Rolando V. Garcia
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 148318966X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
The Constant Catastrophe: Malnutrition, Famines, and Drought deals with the 1972 drought, and emphasizes the underlying social conditions that are related to its effects. The book examines the relationship of drought as a meteorological event and the famine that results as a social event. The effects of natural catastrophes become transformed by social structures and political processes in many countries of the world, more than which can be attributable to the physical cause itself. A striking parallelism that emerges in the study is that climatological analysis implies reference to large scale space and time processes. Famine also occurs as anomalies within large-scale processes in society—famine changes nutritional levels in communities. The text proposes a theoretical framework for a methodologically-adequate diagnostic tool that can be used in studying the "factual events" in previous cases of major disasters due to climactic factors. Case studies include those that happened in the Sahel, Ethiopia, India, China, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. Among several recommendations, one which the book proposes in the management of the effects of drought, is to adopt an approach similar to that of the Red Cross. The book is suitable for economists, environmentalists, ecologists, and policy makers involved in crisis management, food production, and rural development.

A Narrative of the Drought and Famine which Prevailed in the North-West Provinces During the Years 1868, 1869, and Beginning of 1870

A Narrative of the Drought and Famine which Prevailed in the North-West Provinces During the Years 1868, 1869, and Beginning of 1870 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Droughts
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description


The Famines of the World: Past and Present ...

The Famines of the World: Past and Present ... PDF Author: Cornelius Walford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Famines
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description


Famine and Drought

Famine and Drought PDF Author: Joanna Brundle
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1534524134
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Readers are introduced to the perils of famine and drought and the lasting effects they have on Earth’s geography and human population. This captivating text brings forth how famine and drought happen, what measures are taken to avoid them, and how they have impacted different parts of the world. Additional information is provided through enlightening fact boxes and simple diagrams to enhance readers’ knowledge of these crucial subjects. Illuminating, full-color photographs are also included in this educational and age-appropriate text, which supports common science curriculum topics.

Adapting to Drought

Adapting to Drought PDF Author: Michael Mortimore
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521323123
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
This book embodies the results of thirteen years of research in drought-prone rural areas in the semi-arid zone of northern Nigeria. It describes the patterns of adaptive behaviour observed among Hausa, Ful'be and Manga communities in response to recurrent drought in the 1970s and 1980s. The question of desertification is explored in an area where the visible evidence of moving sand dunes is dramatic blame are examined in relation to the field evidence. A critique is offered of deterministic theories and authoritarian solutions. Professor Mortimore demonstrates a parallel between the observable resilience of semi-arid ecosystems and the adaptive strategies of the human communities that inhabit them and suggests policy directions for strengthening that resilience.