In this issue of RCC Perspectives, Christian Pfister examines disaster memory and risk culture. In contrast to the memory of war, the memory of natural disaster is markedly short-lived in a globalized world, yet such memory should be preserved in order to minimize the impact of similar disasters in the future.
Kate Rigby examines a variety of past disasters, from the Black Death of the Middle Ages to the mega-hurricanes of the twenty-first century, revealing the dynamic interaction of diverse human and nonhuman factors in their causation, unfolding, and aftermath. Focusing on the link between the ways disasters are framed by the stories told about them and how people tend to respond to them in practice, Rigby also shows how works of narrative fiction invite ethical reflection on human relations with one another, with our often unruly earthly environs, and with other species in the face of eco-catastrophe.
A book by Robert A. Jacobs on the meaning, costs, and legacies of our embrace of nuclear weapons and technologies.
In this episode from the New Books Network podcast, Martin Puchner is interviewed on his recent book, Literature for a Changing Planet .
The full book by RCC alumna Katrin Kleemann.
Rivers need property rights so that humans can live with floods.
In this Springs article, natural-resource and environmental-policy professor Thomas Princen explores three extreme weather events in the Houston-Galveston area, Texas.
In this Springs article, historian Tom Griffiths considers Australia’s devastating 2019 and 2020 bushfires and the cultural and worldwide impact they had.
This paper explores how conceptions of Canada as a naturally healthy environment proved false when the ill-health of civilians was revealed during the First World War.
A grippingly perceptive tale of changing social attitudes and scientific practices.
