As noted in the last posting, the Trump Administration is blocking efforts by some federal agency scientists to share climate and environmental information. It has not taken long for the scientists to find workarounds; here are three :
The Diva does not usually deal with national political matters, but a new decision by the Trump administration affects information that is essential to emergency management researchers and practitioners. See this article from the Wash. Post on Jan. 25.
Federal agencies ordered to restrict their communications. Some excerpts:
Trump administration officials instructed employees at multiple agencies in recent days to cease communicating with the public through news releases, official social media accounts and correspondence, raising concerns that federal employees will be able to convey only information that supports the new president’s agenda.
The new limits on public communications appear to be targeting agencies that are charged with overseeing environmental and scientific policy, prompting criticism from officials within the agencies and from outside groups focused on climate change.
Reuters reported the story with a blunter headline: Trump Administration Seeks to Muzzle U.S. Agency Employees.
U.S. Communities Clobbered by $53 Billion in Extreme Weather and Climate Disasters in 2016 . See especially Figure 2: Community Need for Disaster Recovery Assistance.
The new Trump administration features many key officials who are fresh from corporate life; most have no government experience. As a person concerned with governance, I can only wonder if running government like a big business will be an improvement over the present system. I highly recommend this article.
From the NY Times, see: For Trump’s Nominees, a Billionaires’ Guide to Running the Government
From the World Economic Forum, the World Risks Report, 2017. The document is 78 pages.
Thanks to Wanda Headley, Librarian at the Hazards Center in Colorado for the newest version.
Consuming Catastrophe; Mass Culture in America’s Decade of Disaster, by Timothy Recuber. Temple University Press. Paperback price: $28.95
URL: http://tupress.temple.edu/book/20000000009205
Reviewer: Jono Anzalone, Vice President of International Services with the American Red Cross. Prior to assuming that position he has been a volunteer and paid staff member of the Red Cross since 1995.
Consuming Catastrophe is a must read for emergency managers and those interested in the disaster space. Recuber provides insight into the connectivity between media and disaster which is a topic that anyone working in the emergency management space should better understand, especially in today’s environment where phenomena such as “fake news” are drivers in how disaster responses are being covered. As an emergency management practitioner I strongly recommend Recuber’s chapter on “The Limits of Empathy” which highlights the disturbing trends in “disaster tourism” and changing perceptions and reactions of the public to disasters.
Recuber look at disaster not through an emergency mangers lens, but rather sociological provides new insight into how media is playing a key role in influence public opinion and behavior, of which all are not positive. Influencing the empathetic compass of the public, the media’s role in covering disasters also is emoting fear and impacting levels of trust which is closely examined by Recuber.
With the growth of online media, Recuber also reveals the changing dynamics in how the public are reacting to disasters, highlighting the risks associated with the public now witnessing the effects of disaster though Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other medium, but not necessarily mobilization the support that once was traditional (volunteering time or donating funds). An eye opening read on the continued desire for media sensationalism, which may come at the expense of those impacted by disaster.
From HS Newswire: Natural catastrophe losses at their highest for four years
A number of devastating earthquakes and powerful storms made 2016 the costliest twelve months for natural catastrophe losses in the last four years. Losses totaled US$ 175 billion, a good two-thirds more than in the previous year, and very nearly as high as the figure for 2012 ($ 180 billion). The share of uninsured losses – the so-called protection or insurance gap – remained substantial at around 70 percent. Almost 30 percent of the losses, some $ 50 billion, were insured.
Updates on Jan. 22– I made some updates on the Go Bag from actual march experience.
For the Women’s March on Washington (Jan 21) the Diva put together a list of what to wear and carry for a potentially cold day in the outdoors. With the help of some friends, also in the emergency preparedness business, she created a one-page list for a Go Bag The link to it is here: gobag-revised2017. It now includes some changes made from experience at the march.
Some march-specific instruction, provided by the march organizers included the following:
All backpacks and bags may be subject to search at the March, and those not conforming to the standards set here may be confiscated or asked to be left behind. Backpacks are not permitted unless they are clear and no larger than 17″x12″x6″ (colored transparent bags are not permitted).
Recent postings have dealt with the likelihood of more frequent floods and now we have this citation of research on tornadoes. It does seem that EM is a a field of endeavor likely to grow.
From HSNewswire, Tornadoes:More frequent large-scale tornado outbreaks.
The frequency of large-scale tornado outbreaks is increasing in the United States, particularly when it comes to the most extreme events, according to new research. The researchers found that the increase in tornado outbreaks does not appear to be the result of a warming climate as earlier models suggested. Instead, their findings tie the growth in frequency to trends in the vertical wind shear found in certain supercells—a change not so far associated with a warmer climate.
This is another take on a topic covered in some earlier postings, but it is worth considering again. See: Subsidized insurance is developer socialism
Government has become the insurer of last resort precisely because – unlike politicians – free market insurers are not in denial about climate change. Allstate once insured more than a million homes in Florida. It now covers about 400,000, and reportedly plans to reduce that to 100,000.
Private insurers see little profit in paying out damages to rebuild oceanfront properties that are almost certain to be ravaged anew.
“With the federal government taking on such an enormous share of the financial burden and nearly all recovery responsibility, there is little incentive for disaster-prone states to take action to reduce risk,” The SmarterSafer coalition, whose members include some of the world’s largest insurance companies, stated in 2015.
This notion that the feds will keep picking up the tab for damages in disaster-prone areas that should not have been developed in the first place, prompted FEMA Director (and former Florida emergency disaster czar) Craig Fugate to go off on a remarkably candid rant in a recent interview with Blomberg News.
Recovery Diva 