The Management of Disasters:
International Disaster Management
Chapter 1
Chapter 8
History of Disaster Management
Ancient History
- This Ancient Cave Art Passed Survival Information Across 130 Human Generations in Patagonia, Study Suggests (Smithsonian, February 15, 2024)
- The Roman Empire’s Worst Plagues Were Linked to Climate Change | Scientific American (Scientific American, January 26, 2024)
- What caused the volcanic tsunami that devastated a Greek island 373 years ago? (Ars Technica, October 27, 2023)
- A Strong Quake (or Two) Rattled Puget Sound 1,100 Years Ago (Eos, October 27, 2023): “Tree rings hint that two neighboring faults ruptured within 6 months of each other and suggest that the maximum magnitude of quakes around Puget Sound could exceed previous estimates.“
- Climate change has toppled some civilizations but not others. Why? (Popular Science, October 22, 2023)
- This ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrifice (National Geographic, June 29, 2023)
- Paleotsunami Detectives Hunt for Ancient Disasters (Kakai Magazine, February 16, 2023)
- A tsunami wiped out ancient communities in the Atacama Desert 3,800 years ago (Arstechnica, April 7, 2022): ” The estimated magnitude 9.5 megathrust earthquake would have shoved parts of the coastline upward and triggered a tsunami 19 to 20 meters high along a huge stretch of the Chilean coast (and all the way across the Pacific in New Zealand, where geologists have also found deposits from a tsunami of about the same age).”
- 3,600-year-old tsunami ‘time capsule’ sheds light on one of humanity’s greatest disasters (National Geographic, December 27, 2021)
- Earliest known war driven by climate change, researchers say (CNN, May 27, 2021): “There was evidence of very severe flooding of the Nile at this time. These changes were not gradual at all. They had to survive these changes that were brutal.”
Modern History
- A Massive, Two-Fault Earthquake May Have Struck the Pacific Northwest 1,100 Years Ago (Smithsonian, October 2, 2023)
- Honda Point Disasters: The Largest Loss of US Navy Ships During Peacetime (Grunge, December 2, 2022): “Gigantic tsunamis have been decimating coastlines since time immemorial. We ignore these prehistoric warnings at our own peril.”
- A disastrous ‘megaflood’ flood in sunny and dry California? It’s happened before (USA Today, August 13, 2022): “New research suggests climate change increases the likelihood of a massive California “megaflood,” akin to the Great Flood of 1862. That disaster, brought on by more than 40 days of constant rain, led to the death of 4,000.”
- How the ‘wickedest city on Earth’ was sunk by an earthquake (National Geographic, July 28, 2022): “Jamaica’s Port Royal was the Caribbean’s most notorious pirate haven when it sank into the sea in 1692. Centuries later, underwater archaeologists unearthed fascinating stories from its ruins.”
- ‘The Vortex’ details a cyclone that divided Pakistan and almost led to a nuclear war (NPR, March 29, 2022): This is a fascinating interview, with author Scott Carney, that explains how a poorly managed cyclone in Pakistan, led to a political party’s loss of hold on government, an authoritative crack down and subsequent genocide, and ultimately the creation of a a new country (Bangladesh).
- The Great Havana Hurricane of 1846: What if it Happened Today? (Washington Post, October 11, 2021): This article explains how the disaster that would be caused by the same event occurring today would result in at least $100 billion in damages and far reaching social and economic implications.
Disaster Trends
- Amid record disaster losses, Swiss Re issues warning (Axios, March 27, 2024)
- SwissRE Website on 2023 Natural Catastrophes and the prevailing insurance gap (SwissRE, March 26, 2024)
- $100bn the new catastrophe loss norm. SCS shows it’s time to reassess thresholds: WTW (Artemis, January 29, 2024)
- Global insured disaster losses in 2023 to top $100B (Axios, October 19, 2023)
- Hurricane Ian brings billion-dollar disasters this year well above average (Axios, October 12, 2022). In the United States, billion dollar disasters occur at a rate of one event every 18 days.
- Why disasters are getting more severe but killing fewer people (Vox, July 10, 2022): “An important but overlooked piece of good news about climate change.”
- Weather disaster-related deaths are down—warming could undo that trend (National Geographic, October 2021)
REPORT: UNDRR Report on the Human Cost of Disasters between 2000 and 2019. “Over the last twenty years, 7,348 disaster events were recorded worldwide by EM-DAT, one of the foremost international databases of such events. In total, disasters claimed approximately 1.23 million lives, an average of 60,000 per annum, and affected a total of over 4 billion people (many on more than one occasion). Additionally, disasters led to approximately US$2.97 trillion in economic losses worldwide.” Download
REPORT: 2020 – The Non-COVID Year in Disasters. “In comparison to the previous two decades (2000-2019), 2020 was higher than the annual average in terms of the number of recorded events and the annual average of economic losses, which is US$ 151.6 billion. There were considerably fewer deaths compared to the annual average of 61,709 and fewer people directly affected compared to the annual average of 201.3 million people. This decrease in impacts is due to the absence of mass casualty events, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (227,000 deaths) and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake (222,500 deaths) or high impact events, such as the 2015/2016 drought in India (330 million people affected). However, in 2020 there were 26% more storms than the annual average of 102 events, 23% more floods than the annual average of 163 events, and 18% more flood deaths than the annual average of 5,233 deaths.“Download
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
- What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR, 2021)
REPORT: The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2021 – Our analysis centres on the risks and consequences of widening inequalities and societal fragmentation. In some cases, disparities in health outcomes, technology, or workforce opportunities are the direct result of the dynamics the pandemic created. In others, already present societal divisions have widened, straining weak safety nets and economic structures beyond capacity. Whether the gaps can be narrowed will depend on the actions taken in the wake of COVID-19 to rebuild with a view towards an inclusive and accessible future. Inaction on economic inequalities and societal divisiveness may further stall action on climate change—still an existential threat to humanity. Download
Disaster Reports
Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (CHEs)
- Ukraine War Pushes Millions of the World’s Poorest Toward Starvation (Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2022): “The worst hunger emergency in a half-century is afflicting Somalia and some of the world’s other poorest countries, where the effects of drawn-out conflicts and increasingly extreme weather are being exacerbated by the economic disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic.”
Commentary
- Disasters are a permanent part of the Canadian fabric. We can’t keep winging it (The Globe and Mail, December 6, 2021)