ANTH 206 Lecture Notes - Ocean Acidification, Coral Bleaching, Food Preservation
Document Summary
Natural hazard --> disaster e. g. a natural drought causes starvation. Disasters aren"t natural because vulnerability to them is manmade e. g. a natural drought combined with a community"s manmade vulnerability causes starvation. Human technology is so extended that any death shouldn"t be considered natural e. g. cancer --> caused by us and could have been prevented. Manmade hazard + manmade vulnerability = disaster e. g. a manmade drought (caused by global warming) combined with a community"s manmade vulnerability causes starvation. Living near the coast is making us vulnerable to tsunamis. If we didn"t leave there, we wouldn"t be affected by tsunamis. Planting one crop only is making us vulnerable to famine. If that one crop fails, there is nothing else to eat. Should have planted different crops to prevent famine. Arguing against the idea of the natural disaster. There is objective evidence that the causes of disasters always involve human agency. In some cultures, natural disasters are never natural.