-What is it?: Drought is the prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall leading to a shortage of water. The IDRU has identified drought as a major sign of Slow Disaster on spaceship earth due to it's risk for catalyzing mass migration. It's primary malfunction is the desertification of land leading to potentially hazardous number of forced migrations in the future.
-geography: Drought is most affected in the African region, especially in the African Horn. For more information click here
-cause/catalyst: Cause for drought in the African horn relates to climate change attribution. As spaceship earth's internal temperature rises the African zone, which is already known to hold the deepest layer of intense heating on Earth will only grow hotter. This aridness has a direct correlation to a decline in agriculture and is the reason for the emerging food crisis in the area.
-artifacts/objects of slow disaster:
-potential cascade effects: Adverse climate conditions throughout multiple zones on spaceship earth is projected to lead to 140,000,000 migrations by 2050[1]. Consequences of migration include, violence in effected regions of climate change, 'sudden onset' migrations, and the creation of refugee centers which are prone to bring high levels of poverty, economic vulnerability, and NIMBYism to the hosting zones [2].
[1] Kumari Rigaud, Kanta, Alex de Sherbinin, Bryan Jones, Jonas Bergmann, Viviane Clement, Kayly Ober, Jacob Schewe, Susana Adamo, Brent McCusker, Silke Heuser, and Amelia Midgley. 2018. Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration. The World Bank. Pg 2. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29461
[2] Fajth, V., Bilgili, Ö., Loschmann, C. et al. How do refugees affect social life in host communities? The case of Congolese refugees in Rwanda. CMS 7, 33 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019-0139-1
-What is it?: Flooding is the overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. The IDRU has identified flooding as a major sign of Slow Disaster on spaceship earth due to the long lasting and discriminatory outcomes of floods. It's primary malfunction is the destruction of urban infrastructure and the resettlement of the urban poor. In short, floods or the rehabiliation of floods have a very high susceptibility toward discriminatory practice of zoning and moving populations around.
-geography: Flooding is a global phenomenon, occuring everywhere in the world. However the North America and Asia zones maintain the highest levels of risk when it comes to flooding.
-cause/catayst: The main cause of floods and their effects is the occupation of high risk lands & population growth of spaceship Earth[1]. Not only that the damage incurred from flooding is result of marginalization, poverty, and deprivation of communities globally[2].
-artifacts/objects of slow disaster:
-potential cascade effects: Like drought, flooding is part of the reasons that project the massive migration by 2050. In areas like Bangladesh, where there are over 230 rivers present in their geography flooding can trap a third of the city underwater. Because flooding can actually have positive effects (farming, agriculture, sustenance) and it's negative effects be adjusted (levees, dams, rezoning), many times flooding is suseptible to the corrupt use of power. Often when flooding occurs, areas of redevelopment can be established usually leaving out the original community from re-entering the land leaving long lasting impact. For example, public housing and public schools were demolished for private schools and corporate housing which meant that the original victims of Hurricane Katrina (2007) were forced to move on from their own city to somewhere more affordable [3].
[1]White, Gilbert F. Human adjustment to floods. Chicago, Ill. : University of Chicago, 1945 (DLC)a 45002901 (OCoLC)34845278.