Arcadia
Carbon Bomb: Indonesia’s Failed Mega Rice Project
In 1997 and 1998 peat swamp forests burned in Borneo, Indonesia, spewing big amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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Multimedia | book profile
Fault Lines: Earthquakes and Urbanism in Modern Italy
Earthquakes occur along fault lines, sometimes with disastrous effects. These disturbances can significantly influence urban development, as seen in the aftermath of two earthquakes in Italy. Fault Lines follows the history of these places before and after their destruction, explores plans and developments that preceded the disasters, and the urbanism that emerged from the ruins.
Multimedia | journal article
"Post-Disaster Migrations and Returns in Sicily: The 1908 Messina Earthquake and the 1968 Belice Valley Earthquake"
This article explores the relationship between disasters and the population movements in two case studies: The 1908 Messina earthquake and the 1968 Belice Valley earthquake.
Multimedia | journal article
"Radiation and Borders: Chernobyl as a National and Transnational Site of Memory"
The essay sheds light on the implications of Chernobyl as a national site of memory in Germany, France, and Belarus. The comparative perspective reveals the importance of underlying structures such as national (nuclear) politics, elite and expert culture, environmentalism, and the role of individual agency.
Multimedia | journal article
"An Impure Nature: Memory and the Neo-Materialist Flip at America’s Biggest Toxic Superfund Site"
This essay reflects on an incident in 1995, when 300 snow geese died in the flooded Berkeley Pit, a toxic open pit copper mine in the northwestern United States. In his analysis the author draws on new materialist theoretical approaches that reject anthropocentric thinking and instead emphasize the powerful materiality of cultural phenomena.
Arcadia
“It Was a Blast!”—Camp Life on Christmas Island, 1956–1958
The day-to-day experiences of the men who developed and tested the British nuclear deterrent on Christmas Island from 1956–1958.
Arcadia
The Sidoarjo Mudflow and the Muddiness of an Environmental Disaster
This article describes an ongoing environmental disaster in Indonesia, where a mud volcano has been inundating an ever-increasing area.
Multimedia | image
Photograph: Dome on Runit Island
Covering the crater of a 1977 nuclear test, the “Cactus Dome” contains 84,000 cubic meters of radioactive soil.
Arcadia
The Australia Day Floods, January 1974
Brisbane’s 1974 floods substantially damaged Brisbane, accelerating the government’s plans for a second flood mitigation dam.
Multimedia | book excerpt
Die Natur der Gefahr: Überschwemmungen am Ohio River im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert
Die Natur der Gefahr traces the history of the Ohio river, its significance for trade and industry, and its flooding disasters between the late eighteenth century through to the twentieth century.