Act before It Happens Introduction In the article Under Water by Kate Sheppard, the author addresses the issue of natural disaster more specifically super-storms that highly endanger people who live on coastal counties throughout the U.S. Sheppard primarily addresses this article to the 39% of American population who live on coastal counties that are likely to get flooded, and to the governmental authorities who rather spend billions of dollars fixing damages caused by super-storms instead of taking precautions to prepare for them. Sheppard relies on extrinsic proofs to claim that people pretend like there will not be another major super-storm that will happen in the near future while weather changes and data have shown otherwise, and as …show more content…
a result the government has gone into debt it will never be able to pay back. The author makes this argument because the U.S is ignoring warning signs, and do not take them seriously.
Sheppard states many secondary claims such as “The U.S spends of dollars on disasters after they happen, but pennies to prepare for them”, “the feds creates programs that allow people to build in high-risk area as if a storm will not happen again”, and “by 2050, extreme storms will cause 129.7 billion dollars’ worth of loss”. (Sheppard, 2013, Pge 240-243). These secondary claims all work together as evidences to prove that nobody is doing anything to prepare for super-storms. There will be many helpful consequences if Sheppard succeeds in persuading her audience; such as the government will start preparing for disasters before they happen instead of after and will stop insuring houses that are repeatedly destroyed by storms, people will stop building in risky area, and people …show more content…
from coastal areas will move inland. The issue Sheppard starts by giving a history on Hurricane Sandy that ravaged New York City in 2012 to introduce the issue. Hurricane Sandy flooded Battery Park and South Ferry Station, and had cost the government 60 billion dollars in repair (Sheppard, 2013). Sheppard (2013) claims that city planners “ sort of did know” that New York would be flooded by a superstorm because years before Sandy happened there were two climate reports on increasing sea level rise that predicted a high possibility of flood in New York. In addition, recent climate data by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and climate consultant experts have all confirm that people who live on coastal areas are increasingly likely to be flooded by storms like Sandy or Katrina due to the sea level rise. Sheppard successfully proves that there is an imminent threat of major flooding damages that people choose to ignore, and not prepare for. Through the use of credible scholarly sources as her evidence, Sheppard is able to effectively establish ethos for her claim. Sheppard uses figures of authorities to give evidence of her claim because she knows that people tend to be persuaded by those who have knowledge or credibility. Why people stay Moreover, Sheppard uses pathos to explain why people refuse to leave coastal counties although it is very probable that they will be flooded. To do so, she interviews Chris West, a resident of Gloucester, Virginia. Sheppard interviews West because he is a proximate witness; he has experienced the worst storms Gloucester has ever had. Gloucester is one of the highest flooding risk areas in the U.S due to its low and flat land, therefore it receives large amount money to raise houses and insure them. Chris West is one of the many residents of Gloucester who refuses to sell his house to the government to move inland because his house is insured by the government so he does not have to spend money. Sheppard identifies two main reasons why people refuse to leave: Their homes are insured so they do not have to defray the costs of rebuilding after a storm, and as West says it “It's hard to take people out of their home, their true home” (Pge. 243). These two reasons illustrate why people stay in dangerous areas; government programs give incentives for people to stay. People may be attached to their homes, but if their houses were not insured, they would be more willing to move. Not only does it endangers people’s life; but it is a waste of money. Material challenges/solutions As the author of the article, Sheppard faces many material challenges to compel people to stop pretending that the next big storm will not happen soon.
First, the government has to determine if the rapid sea level rise is due to climate change or global warming because government officials say one thing, and climate experts say the other. Also, people have to be educated about the sea level rise; they have to know exactly how it is going to affect them with or without government assistance. And lastly, some people will have to be forced out of their homes because some residents have lived in flood risk area all their life; it is where they grew
up. Conclusion Kate Sheppard writes a strong, successful article addressing the issue of sea level rise that is rapidly endangering the lives of the 123 millions of Americans who live on coastal counties. The author effectively uses figures of authority and data to support that people are pretending the next big storm will not happen. She uses a strategic third point of view because it allows her to bring in climate who supported her claim, and made it more persuasive. Most importantly, Sheppard thoroughly proved that the government must stop insuring and allowing people to build in high risk flood areas because “today's disasters are tomorrow's normal” (Sheppard, 2013, Pge.245).
In the article “Swimming for Her Life” by Kristin Lewis the main character Yusra Is a 18 year reefuge who is a olympic swimmer who faces many problems early in life. She and her sister had to flee their country because of terrorists and war. There where not many countries that would allow refugees into their country. So they had to hire a smuggler to get them to germany. While they rode on a boat to greece The motor stopped working so yusra and her sister had to jump in the water and push the boat for three hours. After they got to Greece they had to walk for 25 days to get to germany. Finally they got there and they were very luckie to find a refugee camp. Then when the olympics started they announced that there would be a refugee swim team.
A quote that sums up depression quite well was written by Martha Manning in her book “Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface.”
In the first short story of Drown by Junot Diaz, the reader follows a nine year old and his twelve year old brother, Rafa, as they stay with their uncle in Ocoa for the summer. Throughout their brief journey to unmask Ysreal, who wears a mask to hide his disfigured face caused by a pig when he was a baby, there is a very evident portrayal of the brothers’ family dynamic. Through their relationship, the reader is able to get an understanding of how machismo, their environment, and how their absent father play a role in their life.
In 2008 Hurricane Ike made land fall to the east coast line in Galveston Texas. The storm surge water that Ike produced flooded the east coast region of Houston and Galveston. It has been estimated over billions of dollars in damage to home owners, business owners, and cause numerus of deaths. The mass destruction that Ike caused had people coming up ways to prevent or lessen the effects if a storm like this would ever occur in the future. A storm surge project was drafted and submitted to politicians is being delayed due to funding issues. Money should not be the major delay when it comes to saving homeowners, business owners, and a life of a person.
Of course I do not consider myself to be a racist, or a bigot, but I am aware of socially conditioned stereotypes and prejudices that reside within. That awareness, and the ability to think for myself, has allowed me to approach issues with clarity of mind and curiousness at the social interactions of various movements. Buried in the Bitter Waters, by Elliot Jaspin, has easily awakened my sensibilities and knowledge of modern era race relations in the United States. I read each chapter feeling as if I had just read it in the pages before. The theme of racial cleansing - of not only the colonizing of a people, but the destruction of their lives and livelihood – was awesome. The “awesome” of the 17th century, from the Oxford English Dictionary, as in “inspiring awe; appalling, dreadful.” Each story itself was a meditation on dread and horror, the likes of which my generation cannot even fathom. It is with that “awe” that I reflect in this response paper.
...uent hurricanes that may come. Elevated homes, Flood resistant materials, Strong wind shields. Five years later, Gene and his family are still recovering, many others still getting to be where they were before the harsh September thirteenth. But what is important now is how they and the future generations will survive future disasters and not merely what they lost. The history of the Ike is still in progress as they think of ways to combat the challenges they face and avoid future ones.
As George Santayana famously said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. This appears to be prophetic seeing the events that played out during both the Johnstone flood and Hurricane Katrina. However with proper plans and infrastructure in place, appropriate inspection and maintenance, and an accurate and up to date emergency notification system, it is very feasible that we can in the future break this deadly trend.
The events that form you are probably the best events of your entire life. In the memoir, The Color of Water by James McBride, the audience is told about a young mixed boy who grew up in a very segregated time period. The setting was Suffolk, Virginia; New York City; Louisville, Kentucky; Oberlin, Ohio; and Wilmington, Delaware. James McBride describes how he changed from a confused child into an intellectual individual. Although the story talks about many small events that all built up James McBride as a person, there were three major events that truly gave him definition as to whom he was, or who he could be. These events are when his step father, Hunter Jordan, died; when he moved to Delaware; and when he was able to finally uncover his
“The middle class was invented to give the poor hope; the poor, to make the rich feel special; the rich, to humble the middle class,” said Mokokoma Mokhonoana, a South African author and social critic. Mokhonoana points out that individuals define themselves based on the identities of others, which The Color of Water by James McBride and Hamlet by William Shakespeare address. McBride’s memoir delves into the early life experiences of James’ Jewish mother, Ruth McBride, as she faces the internal and external struggles of being an immigrant in America and the financial struggle created by her low socioeconomic status. At the same time, he narrates his struggles as he grows up impoverished and desperate for money. In a subtle but similar way,
Already scientists have observed that more than 75% of the recent economic losses are caused by natural hazards which can be attributed to wind storms, floods, droughts and other climate related hazards. In the year 2008, the U.S. state of Iowa was on the front pages of newspapers all around the world. Weeks of heavy rain in the Midwest caused rivers to swell and levees to break. Millions of acres of farmland are now underwater, their plantings most likely destroyed. By March, Iowa had tied its third-highest monthly snowfall in 121 years of record keeping, and then came the rain. April’s st...
August 23rd, 2005; Hurricane Katrina, formed over the Bahamas, hitting landfall in Florida. By the 29th, on its third landfall it hit and devastated the city of New Orleans, becoming the deadliest hurricane of the 2005 season and, one of the five worst hurricanes to hit land in the history of the United States. Taking a look at the years leading to Katrina, preventative actions, racial and class inequalities and government, all of this could have been prevented. As presented in the newspaper article, An Autopsy of Katrina: Four Storms, Not Just One , we must ask ourselves, are “natural” disasters really natural or, are they a product of the people, who failed to take the necessary actions that needed to be taken?
Scientists appear to have become aware of the issue of rising sea levels in the mid to late 1980s. An article published in Science News in 1987 predicted that “global warming… will cause… the world's oceans to expand, raising the average sea level by 4 to 8 centimeters in the next 40 years” (Monastersky). Though 4 to 8 centimeters sounds like a miniscule amount in relation to the vastness of the world’s oceans, this early article disturbed many readers. Many for this reason: early stud...
The global sea level rose about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in the last century (NASA). The rate in the last decade, however, is nearly double that of the last century. With climate change on the rise, higher temperatures, more droughts, and wilder weather will prevail. These changes will affect animals, ecosystems, and people.
Educating the public and getting them to take preparatory actions to better protect themselves in the face of natural hazards has led to extensive study of risk communication by social scientists and disaster researchers over the past half-century (Quarantelli, 1991). Lindell et al (2006) describe the reason for risk communication as “to initiate and direct protective action” relative to a hazardous threat (Lindell et al, 2006, p. 84). Better understanding of why people take protective actions has led to better risk communication directed at preparedness measures. Research has identified key ingredients regarding the effectiveness of risk communication messages as well as conditions conducive to adoption of improved preparedness practices.
This lack of preparation takes place in different places and involves different hazards. In the case of a hurricane, only half of all respondents living in Central Florida have a hurricane evacuation plan in place (Kapucu, 2008). Another finding revealed that only 8 percent of all respondents have prepared a disaster supplies kit at home. Kenny (2009) found that most residents in South Florida, a hurricane-prone area, failed to take preparatory measures such as securing bottled water and food when storms strike. In another place and a different hazard, the results of the study demonstrated the same finding.