Implementing Gilbert White’s Vision? some thoughts going forward…
-
Upload
silvester-pope -
Category
Documents
-
view
223 -
download
0
Transcript of Implementing Gilbert White’s Vision? some thoughts going forward…
Implementing Gilbert White’s Vision? Two views…
• Strait jacket
(remember what I once said)
• Point of departure
(think for yourselves)
recent human success: recent human success: itself an extreme eventitself an extreme event
in a short period of time…• growth in numbers• resource use per capita• accelerating pace of social change, science, and technology, including…• the invention of “natural” disasters
Natural disasters...
…reflect social decisions
• disruptions of entire communities
• persisting after the hazard has come and gone
• exceeding the communities’ ability to recover unaided
Why, despite the fact we know so much more about the natural and social causes of disasters, do losses continue to mount?
The standard answer…
• Population increase
• Migration to more hazardous areas
• Growth in wealth over time
• But… additional factors are at work…
White, Kates, and Burton 2001*
• we haven't learned as much as we think• knowledge is available but unused• knowledge is used ineffectively, and/or • growth in costs may reflect a time lag
between the acquisition of new understanding and when it can be put into practice.
*White, GF, et al. (2001), ‘Knowing better and losing even more: the use of knowledge in hazards management,’ Environmental Hazards, (3). 81-92.
The problem (continued)…
• need to move from efforts to manage emergency response and recovery of greater scope and complexity
• to reducing the need for such measures
• extremes: the new
eco-tourism
“private sector” and NGO’s, FBO’s must be full partners• Victim
• Vector
• Critical infrastructure provider
• Emergency responder
• Recovery
• Strategic planning partner?
• Marketer?
Increasingly, …
• …building resilience will – require all sectors of the community– be much more than emergency response
• …disasters will be about social justice/equity
Increasingly, …
• …building resilience will – require all sectors of the community– be much more than emergency response
• …disasters will be about social justice/equity
• …disasters will be, at their core, a spiritual/cultural matter