Tag Archives: disaster

Disaster and disaster – Junot Diaz on Haiti

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Garry Peterson

Junot Diaz, author of the fantastic novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, writes about Haiti’s earthquake in Apocalypse: What Disasters Reveal.  The experience of Port au Prince was quite difference from Lyttleton, New Zealand response to their own … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Back Loop, Cities, Inequality, Reorganization, Vulnerability | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Japan’s cascading disaster

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Garry Peterson

It is too early for a resilience analysis of Japan’s cascading disaster, but here are some links.  First on the fast variables, and then on the slow. 1) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is posting their continuously updated report on … Continue reading →

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Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami from above and below

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Garry Peterson

New York Times has Satellite Photos of Japan Before and After Tsunami Boston Globe’s Big Picture photoblog has collected photos from the ground.

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Floods in Brisbane and Brazil

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Garry Peterson

The near simultaneous floods in Brazil and Brisbane provide a contrast in terms of their impact (and media coverage).  Brisbane is experiencing huge property damage, but relatively little loss of life – while Brazil is experiencing large loss of life, … Continue reading →

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Hunza landslide lake

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Garry Peterson

In early January of 2010 a huge landscape destroyed the village of Attabad and dammed the Hunza river in Northwest Pakistan.  The landslide dam resulted in the rapid growth of a new lake that has flooded a key road and … Continue reading →

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Chile – destroyed and reorganizing

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Henrik Ernstson

An earthquake and following tsunamis destroyed great parts of Chile, killing people, ripping apart families, and affecting infrastructure, business, politics, animals and ecological relations. This is my short report on thoughts and fears of the reorganization phase, based on following … Continue reading →

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Disasters 2000-2009

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Garry Peterson

The Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) maintains a global database on disasters.  In collaboration with the new United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) they summarize disasters in the past decade.  They state that in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Vulnerability | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Sidney Mintz on how Haiti’s history is ignored

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Garry Peterson

In the Boston Review, John Hopkin’s anthropologist Sidney Mintz, author of the classic book, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, writes on about Whitewashing Haiti’s History: Every medium of communication in the world is now overrun … Continue reading →

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Using Disasters for Systemic Change

Posted on May 17, 2008 by Garry Peterson

The adaptive cycle concept propose that crisis is followed by a period of reorganization that looks for new forms of organization.  Often these periods rely of plans developed prior to crisis, and are helped by links to areas unaffected by … Continue reading →

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