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Impact of natural disasters on society
Impact of natural disasters on society
Impact of natural disasters on society
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The modern apocalypticism I choose to focus on for this assignment was natural disasters. I want to find out why natural disasters are becoming more common in the world we live in today? Ever since I saw the movie 2012 I have always wondered what would happen if that actually did come true. And if that actually could come true someday, what as a society would do to prevent it from happening or what we would do to prepare for it to happen. The movie 2012 was about the end of the Mayan Calendar and the world actually coming to an end by the hands of natural disasters. During my research I found that my original question didn’t fulfill all of the knowledge that I was craving about the subject of natural disasters it just led to more questions after ever search I did, I needed to know more. So throughout this assignment my mind jumps from one aspect of natural disasters to another. …show more content…
I found a lot of useful information to include in this paper. A database I found really interesting was Natural News; it had a bunch of interesting facts. According to Natural News, the number natural disasters in the past 20 years have increased by four times the amount. The Earth experiences approximately 500 natural disasters per year compared to 120 a year in the 1980’s. In the 1980’s around 175 million people were affected by natural disasters per year and now it has increased by 70 percent to nearly 255 million people. The increasing number of natural disasters has primarily hurt third world countries the most. They don’t have the resources nor are they able to recover from such devastating tragedies (Natural
The US have always been having many advancements. They are one of the most powerful countries in the world with advancements like military, technology, arts, and etc. Although they have many of those advancements there is always a negative side happening in the US that could potentially make them fall. Many people will think that there could be no way the US will fall, but there is always an end to something. For example, empires from thousands of years ago who had many advancements had a fall. The US is going to soon turn like into one of these fallen empires because they are having the same issues that made those empires fall. The US will fall soon because of their environmental problems, immune system, and military spending.
Mayan people are still here today, but the mystery still remains: what caused one of the world’s greatest, most advanced ancient civilizations to fall to its demise? To this day, archaeologists from around the world cannot agree on what exactly caused the collapse of Classic Maya society because there is not just one cause, but multiple causes all interconnected to each other that serve only as a hypothesis for the time being. Some of the most popular theories are civil war, overpopulation, climate change, disease and invasion. However, in recent news and extensive research a red flag has been raised; have we found the answer or at least solved part of the mystery? Societal collapse has often been hand-in-hand with climate change, as seen in
Drea Knufken’s thesis statement is that “As a society, we’ve acquired an immunity to crisis” (510-512). This means that humans in general, or citizens of the world, have become completely desensitized to disasters, we think of them as just another headline, without any understanding of their impact upon fellow
This book focuses on different types of calendars from a number of different places all around the world. This specific chapter, even more specifically this section, focuses on the Mayan calendar. These calendars were written by honored members of their aristocracy and were held to be of great value. The Spanish invaders believed them to be instruments of the devil and burnt great quantities of them. E. G. Richards explains that only four Mayan books are survive in the libraries of Europe, and one of those—The Dresden codex—suffered severe damage in another fire, one which was inflicted on that city in the Second World War. Richards says that the earliest record of a calendar survives from about 500 BC in Monte Alban near Oaxaca. This calendar employs a 260-day cycle, which was commonly used by several societies and is still in use among the present-day inhabitants of the region. The Maya used the calendar partly to anticipate propitious days to embark on wars and other activities. It was also used to record on stone pillars, or stelae, important events in the lives of their kings and to relate these to more mythical events of the past. The Mayan calendar system involved two major methods of specifying a specific date—the calendar round and the long count. The calendar round was used to specify a date within a period of about 52 years, while the long count served to relate such dates within a longer period named a great cycle. The calendar round involved three interlocking cycles of 13, 20, and 365 days respectively. The 365-day cycle was called a haab and was similar to the Egyptian wandering year. Each haab was divided into 18 periods called uinals; each uinal had 20 days and a name. The 18 uinal were followed by five epagomen...
The Mayans were a native Mesoamerican group of people who erected one of the most sophisticated cultures in the Western Hemisphere. They inhabited areas in southern Mexico, and also surrounding Locations included Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras. The Mayan religion civilization came into prominence in 250 A.D., administering a polytheistic approach to worship which included human blood sacrifices to honor their gods or to culminate the crowning of a King. Historians record that the Mayan civilization abruptly and mysteriously abandoned their cities between 900 and 925 A.D.; this also marks the end of the classical period in Mayan history. In this Annotated Bibliography, I will analyze and summarize key
After the disappearance of the Olmec in 100 BCE many Mesoamerican complex societies arose and continued to carry on many of the things of the Olmec culture. The ceremonial centers that were now being established brought about large populations of residents to the area. Trade networks linked the new areas and extended across Mesoamerica. They developed similar to those in the eastern hemisphere.
As Fagan says, “In our efforts to cushion ourselves against smaller, more frequent climate stresses we have consistently made ourselves more vulnerable to rarer but larger catastrophes.” Fagan means that because we have made our cities and civilization so close together because of population growth, if a natural disaster hit then it would destroy a lot more than we think it would. We need to study our climate to prepare ourselves for these disasters.
The example of societal collapse in which I will be making reference to throughout this essay is the Maya civilization. The Maya civilization is, “probably the best known of all early American civilizations.” (Fagan, 1995) It was at its strongest point between AD 300 AND 900. Around AD 900 was the time of its collapse. This civilization was developed in a densely, tropical forest on either highlands or lowlands. Today to visit a Mayan site, people would go to the modern Mexican state, capital city of Merida. This site was once home to the “New World's most advanced Native American civilization before European arrival.” (Diamond, 2009) Over the years there has been many predictions on what had caused the Maya civilization to collapse. At the moment the most recent cause that geographers and scientists have come up with is that climate change may have had a major impact on this collapse. It is said that the rainfall received during the creation of the civilization was a key factor in the continuity of life for the Mayans. This and the addition of societal factors such as religious beliefs, ethnicity and education all had an affect on their way of life, an effect on their societal well-being. Art and architecture that was formed by the Mayans is the foundation for the archaeologists work today. They look at these features and the ruins of the buildings created to depict the kind of lifestyle they lived. Looking at the art and architecture of a specific civilization or community of the past is just one way that can help to inform future adaptations. Another way in which the Europeans received knowledge on the collapse was that they sent out geographers and researchers not long after the collapse to gather as much data and information ...
In recent decades, the contentious issues surrounding climate change and the corresponding effects it likely exerts upon contemporary civilization has developed to become one of the most pressing areas of concern afflicting humanity (Armstrong, 1). Currently, climate change has started to demonstrate its potentially calamitous consequences upon human subsistence practices, and has even begun to alter the very environments that entire societies reside in, theoretically endangering them in both instances (Armstrong, 1). Though the hindrances inherent in climate change are potentially devastating to the preservation of modern society, the problem of climate change itself is not one that is exclusive to the contemporary era. Rather, the harmful
The Dark Ages were a time of great loss in regards to the lack of any grand achievement being made in Europe. After the fall of Rome, it was as if European society paused, and resumed during the Renaissance. This was not true for the Mayans, however. While the Europeans were squandering trying to subsist through the fall of the Roman Empire, the Mayans were building great pyramids, making substantial discoveries in astronomy and mathematics, their culture was rich. The Maya stood out for its sophisticated culture and society, which is eventually overshadowed by Europe’s monumental resurgence during the Renaissance period. It’s salient that the Maya never had a time period in which their culture was lost, despite the mysterious abandonment of
Even though humans are building constructions to prevent natural disasters, Mother Nature overpowers them by provoking natural disasters. Some of which is when a tornado hit Queens, New York in 2012; the tornado exceeded the sea shore of the beach, hit benches, and carried and threw away garbage cans (Williams, 2012). Two years before, an earthquake struck Youngstown, and this natural disaster was caused by Youngstown's people (Choi, 2013).In 2008, a devastating flood wet most of New Orleans due to the built up dams. The Hirakud dam was also built to prevent dams and improve irrigation in Orissa, India, but a flood destroyed the town instead; Orissa is small town ad whatever catastrophes happen to it endangers the whole demographic. This incident led to sixty-eight deaths and four and an half million people undergoing hunger hardships, and 2,999km road was ruined too. (Panda, 2008) Therefore, people should realize defying Mother Nature and constructions preventing natural disasters might actually worsen their society's current situation.
Natural Disasters can occur anywhere at anytime. Some are more predictable than others, but they all bring hardship to everyone’s life. Examples of natural disasters are Earthquakes (Haiti 2010), Tornadoes, Tsunami, Hurricanes, Wild Fires, Winter Storms, Heat waves, Mudslides and Floods. Regardless of what kind of disaster occurs, bottom line, everyone needs to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with the aftermath. Education is the first step to prepare you to deal with any major disaster. Three of the major disasters that can potentially disrupt normal day to day operations in our lives, are Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes.
Many people have created calendars to reflect time within their cultures. It allocates the year into days, months, and years. It also allocates the time into hours, minutes, and seconds. There are many different types of calendars people follow based on the cultures or beliefs you have. The Mayans kept time in different ways that we know use till today thanks to them. Its astonishing how calendars have been useful to people all over the world.
The key aspect discussed in this essay is focused on how to have different peoples created calendars to reflect time within their cultures. Over the years calendars have helped us keep track of things in the past and in current time. This includes important days like for example; based on the time we are aware when World War one occurred in the United States and when women gained the right to vote in 1920. Calendars have helped us keep track of time but the question is, are the calendars today accurate? Does it have to do with culture? Religion? Or the origin you come from? The information present below will justify for Ancient Calendars, How 1582 Lost Ten Days and at last, and for the Oldest Known Mayan Calendar Debunks December 2012 Myth.
The Japan disaster was devastating, and it had an abundance of causes and effects. The nuclear disaster, the tsunami, and the earthquake were the causes of the disaster in Japan. In addition, the disaster had countless effects on the land and people in Japan. The disaster in Japan was as devastating and tragic as 9/11. Both events took a great number of lives and left their country shocked, but prepared them for anything similar that might happen in the future. Knowing the causes and effects of Japan’s disaster can prepare other people and countries around the world for a comparable disaster.