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Re: We've become infamous!
mike shupp (ms44278@HUEY.CSUN.EDU)
Sat, 13 Jul 1996 20:27:05 -0700
On Sat, 13 Jul 1996, Barbara Ruth Campbell wrote:
> Anyone get hurt by Bertha? Any anthropologists out there studying the
> effects of hurricanes and tornados, and earthquakes on world views?
> For instance, how many times do you have to live through a cyclone before
> you move inland? Is it an economic issue or are people just stupid?
> Not that Bangladesh can be used as an example, there is not inland, but
> why, why, why do people live in places at risk?
Terrible as disasters are, they don't strike _everyone_ and
modern societies have the power and resources to rebuild things
fairly quickly. So most people stay put, feeling that the
certainty of a job, local friendships, etc. are more important
than the relatively small chance of disaster striking them in
in the next Big One.
Thus speaks a man who has lived through two earthquakes.
Another factor, from a geology text read long ago, is that
natural disasters are most common at interfaces-- where
continents meet oceans, where plates shove at plates to
uplift mountains, etc. Which is to say at scenic locales.
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ms44278@huey.csun.edu | "Oh no! Don't tell me we're back to
| the originality thing again! Forget
Mike Shupp | originality! It's been done before!"
Department of Anthropology |
Cal State University, Northridge | (Tim Keene <tkeene@TENET.EDU>)
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