Social Science Disasters

Americans have been shocked in the past few years to discover how vulnerable our nation is to disaster, be it terrorist attack or act of God. But what's truly shocking, argues leading security expert Stephen Flynn, is how little we have learned from the cataclysms of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. When it comes to catastrophe, America is living on borrowed time and squandering it. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Natural disasters and the dire effects of climate change cause massive population displacements and lead to some of the most intractable political and humanitarian challenges seen today. Yet, as Maria Cristina Garcia observes in this critical history of U.S. policy on migration in the Global South, there is actually no such thing as a "climate refugee" under current U.S. law. Most initiatives intended to assist those who must migrate are flawed and ineffective from inception because they are derived from outmoded policies. In a world of climate change, U.S. refugee policy simply does not work.

Down to Earth: Busting the Myths of Mars and Venus blasts the lid off the myths of gender roles and stereotypes, and the damage they do to people and our planet. The book also offers strategies for changing the lives of women and men, girls and boys, for the better. Veronica Schwarz tells it like it is, with blistering clarity, anecdotes, statistics and humor, highlighting the points with her own illustrations.

Natural disasters are happening everywhere. Earthquakes, hurricanes, and man-made perils have left communities anxious and confused about their own emergency preparedness. In this unique guide, preparedness and recovery expert Leann Hackman-Carty shows you how to prepare your family, business, and community for a number of devastating scenarios. Gleaned from years of experience with disaster recovery organizations, her specialized insight will help you understand the different levels of disaster preparation and recovery.

DAS Buch zur Ahrtal-Katastrophe. In seinem multimedialen Tagebuch gibt Markus Wipperfürth, der als Spontanhelfer in den ersten Stunden nach der verheerenden Flutkatastrophe ins Ahrtal kam, einen exklusiven Einblick in seine Erlebnisse der ersten Tage, Wochen und Monate nach der größten Naturkatastrophe in der deutschen Nachkriegszeit.Der Pulheimer Landwirts, der durch seine enorme Reichweite in den sozialen Medien zum Katastrophen-Koordinator, Kommunikationsknotenpunkt und Schwarzen Brett des Ahrtals wurde und dringend benötigte Helfer, Hilfsgüter und Maschinen ins Katastrophengebiet gebracht hat.

Drawing on databases of cases filed, news reports, and other sources, Susan M. Sterett argues that governing during the pandemic must include the human institutions intertwined with the effects of the virus. Those institutions reveal problems well beyond the reach of technical expertise. Failures in private insurance as a way of governing risk, conflicts about the primacy of religion, government authority, and health, are problems that predated the pandemic and will persist in future disasters.

An account of the Tulsa race riot of 1921 in which White people attacked and murdered Black residents in the Greenwood neighborhood burning and looting. Includes a collection of shorter witness testimonials and a partial list of property and financial losses of its victims.

"Mientras escribo esto, a lo largo del año 2015, los científicos intentan adelantarse a las próximas pandemias. Nadie es capaz de predecir cuándo una cepa en particular llevará a cabo el salto, si acaso lo hará. Sin embargo, no estamos indefensos ante lo que la evolución pueda tenernos reservado. Contamos con recursos para contrarrestar la expansión de la gripe, como lavarnos las manos. Y los científicos están aprendiendo a fabricar vacunas más efectivas. Al menos, ya no tenemos que mirar hacia las estrellas en busca de protección." — Carl Zimmer

For more than fifty years, a power plant in the small town of Kingston, Tennessee,  burned fourteen thousand tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste sixty feet high and covering eighty-four acres, contained only by an earthen embankment. In 2008, just before Christmas, that embankment broke, unleashing a lethal wave of coal sludge that covered three hundred acres, damaged nearly thirty homes, and precipitating a cleanup effort that would cost more than a billion dollars—and the lives of more than fifty cleanup workers who inhaled the toxins it released.

When terrorists attack, tornadoes make homes disappear, or hurricanes have communities tumbling like building blocks, our hearts weep for those in need. With insight into a world most people are unaware of, Debbie McKinney brings us along on the true story of her volunteer adventures. Travel with her through both uplifting and emotionally challenging experiences.

Después de un desastre, sea provocado por el hombre o por la naturaleza, ¿la gente se vuelve más altruista, ingeniosa y valiente? ¿A qué deben él ánimo las nuevas comunidades que surgen entre las ruinas y en momentos de crisis, con sus nuevos propósitos? ¿Qué revela su alegría sobre la posibilidad y el deseo de cambio social, normalmente insatisfecho? Solnit explora este fenómeno a través de algunas calamidades como el terremoto de 1906 en San Francisco, la explosión que casi acabó con Halifax en 1917, el terremoto de Ciudad de México de 1985, el 11-S en Nueva York y el huracán Katrina, que arrasó Nueva Orleans.

From Hiroshima to Chernobyl, Fukushima to the growing legacy of lethal radioactive waste, humanity's struggle to conquer atomic energy is rife with secrecy, deceit, human error, blatant disregard for life, short-sighted politics and fear. Fallout is an eye-opening odyssey through the first eight decades of this struggle and the radioactive landscapes it has left behind. We are, he finds, forever torn between technological hubris and all-too-human terror about what we have created.

Quick - what do you worry about most? Your cell phone giving you cancer? The public bathroom you're using being dirty? GMOs in your food? An asteroid strike? Something else? In this witty and evidence-based book, Lise Johnson and Eric Chudler get to the root of our worries, all the while using science to help tame the anxiety beast.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun fue uno de los héroes anónimos del Katrina. Durante los días que siguieron al paso del huracán, navegó por las calles inundadas de Nueva Orleans en una vieja canoa ayudando a sus vecinos. Una semana más tarde fue arrestado y acusado de pertenecer a Al Qaeda. Esta es la historia real de Zeitoun. Esta es la historia de Nueva Orleans.

Just after midnight on October 9, 2017, as one of the nation's deadliest firestorms swept over California's Wine Country, hundreds of elderly residents from two posh senior living facilities were caught in its path. The frailest were blind, in wheelchairs, or diagnosed with dementia, and their community quickly transformed from a palatial complex that pledged to care for them to one that threatened to entomb them. The rescue of the final 105 seniors left behind on an inflamed hillside depended not on employees, but strangers whose lives intersected in a riveting tale of terror and heroism.

Conquest, Famine, War, Death: the four horsemen are coming, in the form of the national debt, widespread dependence on government, turmoil in the Middle East, and the expansion of the bureaucratic state. In Obama’s Four Horsemen, syndicated columnist David Harsanyi takes a provocative look at how the Obama Administration allowed four big problems to mushroom into looming disasters we can no longer avoid or postpone. In his famous conversational, fact-driven, and humorous tone, Harsanyi argues that President Obama’s handling of both domestic and foreign crises has set the stage for a disaster of Biblical proportions.

Getting married in a refugee camp is a tricky business. It's a world without rules, where the value of money changes by the day, rumors and gossip are everywhere, and tragedy is a constant backdrop. A Syrian Wedding tells the true story of Mohammad and Amneh, a young couple who are navigating this treacherous landscape as they try to prepare for what should be the happiest day of their lives.

It is the largest oil disaster in American history, and it could happen again. It is more than a story of ruined beaches, dead wildlife, corporate spin, political machinations, and financial fallout. It is a riveting human drama filled with people whose lives will forever be defined as "before" and "after the gulf oil disaster". Black Tide is the only book to tell this story through the perspective of people on all sides of the catastrophe.

A riveting narrative about the biggest earthquake in North American recorded history - the 1964 Alaska earthquake that demolished the city of Valdez and swept away the island village of Chenega - and the geologist who hunted for clues to explain how and why it took place.

There's a really big storm brewing in the city of two fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. Their names? Eric and Eve! They are 10 years old, very smart, energetic, wealthy kids! They decide amongst their terrible ordeal, and having a friend get injured in the hurricane, that they wanted to do something to help their community!