Environmental Hazards and Global Changes

The first half of the 1990's was riddled with unprecedented disasters -- earthquakes in Northridge, California (1994), and Kobe, Japan (1995); tropical cyclones and flooding in Bangladesh (1991); volcanic eruptions (Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991); flooding during 1993 in the Northwest US and along the Mississippi River; and the most costly disaster to date in the US, Hurricane Andrew (1992), to name just a few of the most notable ones. Will climate change and other global environmental changes mean that we will see even more disasters in the future? Or are disasters like those mentioned above already evidence of the worsening interaction of hazards and global environmental changes?


The purpose of this module is to understand the nature, distribution, and impacts of hazards and disasters worldwide and to examine how global changes will affect human vulnerability to such events. We begin by taking a critical look at people’s perception of hazards and the implications of different perceptions on the measurement of hazard trends and on the individual, communal, and societal responses to hazards. Building upon that critical awareness, we then examine some commonly used terms and concepts in order to have a common language with which to speak about past and future hazards trends and the ways in which we attempt to lessen the dangers of living in an ever-changing world. In this module, we use focus issues to highlight problematic aspects of being confronted with hazards.


But, after all, there is at least one or two things about that weather (or, if you please, effects produced by it) which we residents would not like to part with. If we hadn’t our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries -- the ice-storm: when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top -- ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dewdrops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia’s diamond plume. Then the wind waves the branches and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms that glow and burn and flash with all manner of colored fires, which change and change again with inconceivable rapidity from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold -- the tree becomes a spraying fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels; and it stands there the acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature, of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence.


One cannot make the words too strong.Our perceptions of a hazard are influenced by factors such as personal experience with a hazard, varying knowledge of a hazard, different outlooks on the world (God, nature, technology, society, government, self, etc.), culture, gender, wealth, age, the personal and professional roles we have taken on, and adjustments and adaptations to the hazard we have managed. When we ask big questions like "Are things getting better or worse?" or "Is the world becoming more disastrous?" there can be no straightforward answer. We have to question the point of view from which someone would answer these questions, and we have to be aware of the context in which a statement is being made. For example, the answers to such questions are likely to differ between an insurer, an insured home owner, and someone who just lost insurance -- even though they may all speak about property losses from floods. Similarly, responses to hazards will differ depending on people’s hazard perception and personal circumstances. If you are 10 years old and a major blizzard keeps you at home because schools are closed, you might celebrate the day by building a snowman or hanging out with friends. If you are a parent who is expected to be at work and can’t afford the loss of pay or a babysitter, that blizzard is not a source of joy!