Thammasat University students interested in ecology, natural history, sociology, folklore, literature, the environmental humanities, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 4 April Zoom webinar on Animals, Disasters, and Mountains: Rethinking Environmental Humanities.
The event, on Tuesday, 4 April 2023 at 2pm Bangkok time, is presented by Tokyo College, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of environmental humanities.
The event webpage explains:
What is the relationship of humans to animals and to mountains in Japanese culture? To natural disasters? How can these complex relationships help us generate an environmental ethics relevant to the present? Shirane proposes an “ecology of disaster, afterlives, and rebirth” as a means to rethink the relationship of the human to the non-human.
The speaker will be Professor Haruo Shirane, who teaches of Japanese literature and culture and East Asian languages and cultures at Columbia University, New York, the United States of America. The TU Library collection includes a book edited by Professor Shirane.
Students are invited to register for the event at this link:
https://www.tc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ai1ec_event/8747/
With any questions or for further information, please write to
tokyo.college.event@tc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
As TU students know, among the types of natural disasters that occur in Japan are tsunamis, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, cyclones, and volcanic eruptions. Japan has experienced millennia of natural disasters, affecting its economy, development, and social life.
Last year, the World Economic Forum website noted:
Here’s how Japan is using technology to mitigate natural disasters
The key to minimizing human casualties from tsunamis is evacuating to higher ground immediately after an earthquake. When an earthquake strikes, local governments often use disaster prevention administrative radio systems to communicate evacuation information. In the case of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which claimed 18,0000 victims, a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications found that 35% of people living in areas inundated by the tsunami did not hear the audio information from the speakers. This showed the importance of better systems of communication for tsunami information.
Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture is another of the 108 designated tsunami-threatened areas. The city is working to solve the challenge of ensuring reliable communications by bringing together technology and business. The city has invested in an emergency announcement system that uses fully automated drones to urge people to evacuate when tsunami alerts are issued.
The new system, which has undergone a series of development and demonstration tests, began full-scale operation in October. This groundbreaking system was realized through a public-private partnership between the city and four companies: Nokia, Hitachi, Blue Innovation and Andex. The two drones will split into two groups and call for evacuation from 50 meters above the ground along an approximately 8 km section of the coastal area between Miyagino-ku and Wakabayashi-ku, Sendai City.
The main feature of this drone system is that it uses a dedicated private wireless communication network, which is free from disruption even in the event of a disaster. An infrared camera mounted on a drone takes pictures of disaster victims and other objects while in flight and transmits them to the city’s disaster response headquarters, enabling them to assess the damage in remote areas safely and in real-time.
The advantage of the groundbreaking new drone system is that it can be dispatched faster than helicopters and can call out from low altitudes. In the future, it is expected to work with the police and fire departments to share information on impassable routes, fire, and power outage conditions, increasing the speed of rescue operations. In particular, drones, which can easily fly even to dangerous places, will help prevent secondary disasters.
Japan’s leading role in the world
Based on hard-won lessons, Japan has strongly emphasized the importance of disaster prevention to the world. Currently, approximately 96% of the world’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocated to disaster-related activities is for post-disaster recovery, while only 4% is allocated to disaster risk reduction. The head of the United National’s Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, has said: “Reversing this equation is the only way disasters won’t devastate anymore”. Japan is one of the few countries to focus on ODA projects in disaster reduction, such as establishing early warning systems in developing countries.
A posting on the Brookings Institution website added:
Over the years, Japan has spent billions of dollars developing advanced technology against earthquakes and tsunamis and designing buildings to withstand the impact of waves. These proactive precautions by development and contingency planners in Japan have reduced disaster risk, minimizing material damage and loss of life. The Japanese are also prepared to quickly react to quakes and tsunamis due to a highly-developed public education program. It is important to emphasize here how education and schooling can play such a significant role in preparing citizens for such catastrophic natural disasters.
Globally, Japan has been the leader of disaster education in all levels of society, including government institutions, private enterprises and schools. In particular, schools play a major role in Japan’s disaster risk reduction campaign, as a critical element in enhancing disaster resilience is the ability to not only understand the causes and consequences, but also to prepare for and respond to the impacts of disasters.
Safe school sites in Japan are selected through risk assessments geared at ensuring that schools are disaster-proofed and multi-hazard resilient. Students, teachers, parents and communities are involved in learning about disaster risk as well as practicing early warning simulation drills and evacuation for expected and recurring disasters. For example, in Maiko High School in Hyogo Prefecture, classes such as Environment and Disaster educate learners in disaster mitigation as it relates to both the natural and social environment. The purpose is to urge students to think of how citizens live and exist “in the symbiosis society” by utilizing the lessons learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. Through guest lectures by experts and researchers, and through field trips to the Nojima fault, students receive an in-depth education on natural disasters and risk reduction strategies.
Teaching material such as “Let’s Learn about Survival and Safety,” produced by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology, is used in grades 1-3 so that disaster learning and preparation starts early and continues throughout schooling. In addition, the Japan Society of Engineers, the Sapporo Observatory, and the General Insurance Association of Japan have provided students with professional scientific and climate research to further enhance learning.
Tsunamis and climate change, disaster risk reduction and education
Scientists and research organizations have warned that climate change can result in more earthquakes and tsunamis, in part due to global warming. In 2009, University College London Professor Bill McGuire addressed a conference of scientists researching the changing climate’s effects on geological hazards and noted that “climate change doesn’t just affect the atmosphere and the oceans but the earth’s crust as well…the whole earth is an interactive system.”
Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation share common goals: reducing the vulnerability of communities and achieving sustainable development. Disaster risk reduction in the education sector aims to ensure the safety and continuity of education, helping the system to adapt to climate change and reduce the vulnerability of learners through disaster reduction and prevention, which are critical components of climate change adaptation.
In order to prepare populations to adapt to climate change and respond to disasters around the world in a way that minimizes loss of human life as well as damage to social, economic and environmental systems, there is an urgent need for climate change education that integrates disaster risk reduction and preparedness as well as environmental stewardship. Learning about environmental stewardship should include not only environmental education, but also climate change and scientific literacy, and education for sustainable lifestyles and consumption. Learners need a basic understanding of scientific concepts with a deeper level of systems thinking, such as knowledge of the history and causes of climate change; knowledge of and ability to distinguish between certainties, uncertainties, risks and consequences of environmental degradation, disasters and climate change; knowledge of mitigation and adaptation practices that can contribute to building resilience and sustainability; and understanding of different interests that shape different responses to climate change and ability to critically judge the validity of these interests in relation to the public good.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)