Suchergebnisse

Following Hurricane Katrina, the United States government provided billions of dollars in loans to repair the damage caused by the hurricane. However, the specifics surrounding demand for these loans and the process of application and approval for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans have yet to be fully examined. We analyse the demand of small businesses for such loans and delve into the factors which are associated with success in obtaining loan funds following disaster. Results indicate several factors are important in all of the stages of the loan process: the income of the business, whether the business had insurance or received money in an insurance claim and the gender of the business owner.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Overview -- Introduction. Environmental Justice at the Crossroads of Danger and Freedom -- 1. This Movement of Movements -- 2. Environmental Justice Encounters -- 3. Restoring Environmental Justice -- Conclusion. American Optimism, Skepticism, and Environmental Justice -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Glossary -- Selected Bibliography

A study of the social and physical forces impacting territorial vulnerability in Guatemala, including physical design, strategy, poverty, migration, and the impact of the major earthquakes, droughts and hurricanes of the late 19th & early 20th centuries

© 2020, The Author(s). Perceptions of climate change, the impacts of and responses to climatic variability and extreme weather are explored in three communities in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, in relation to livelihood resilience. These communities provide examples of the most common livelihood strategies across the region: small-scale fisheries (San Felipe) and semi-subsistence small-holder farming (Tzucacab and Calakmul). Although the perception that annual rainfall is reducing is not supported by instrumental records, changes in the timing of vital summer rainfall and an intensification of the mid-summer drought (canicula) are confirmed. The impact of both droughts and hurricanes on livelihoods and crop yields was reported across all communities, although the severity varied. Changes in traditional milpa cultivation were seen to be driven by less reliable rainfall but also by changes in Mexico's agricultural and wider economic policies. Diversification was a common adaptation response across all communities and respondents, resulting in profound changes in livelihood strategies. Government attempts to reduce vulnerability were found to lack continuity, be hard to access and too orientated toward commercial scale producers. Population growth, higher temperatures and reduced summer rainfall will increase the pressures on communities reliant on small-scale farming and fishing, and a more nuanced understanding of both impacts and adaptations is required for improved livelihood resilience. Greater recognition of such local-scale adaptation strategies should underpin the developing Mexican National Adaptation Policy and provide a template for approaches internationally as adaptation becomes an increasingly important part of the global strategy to cope with climate change.

A peace movement whose time is now / Senator Mike Gravel -- Introduction. Taking a deeper look at Trump's epithet, "sh*thole" country / Cynthia McKinney -- Toward an understanding of U.S. foreign policy -- A year of overt imperialism. And 2018? / Alberto Rabilotta -- Trump's "neo-neocon" deep state / Wayne Madsen -- The end of Washington's "wars on the cheap" / The Saker -- Western wars and imperial exploitation uproot millions / James Petras -- Some "sh*tholes" to remember (and how they got that way) -- Haiti -- What is a "shithole country," and why is Trump obsessed with Haiti? / Mark Schuler -- Afghanistan -- Why are we in Afghanistan? / Paul Craig Roberts -- Philippines -- US imperialism plagues the Philippines / Jose Maria Sison -- Viet Nam -- Man's atonement in an ocean of grief / Chuck Searcy -- Palestine -- How the US perpetuated the Palestinian tragedy / Sami al-Arian -- Africa -- Africa and western multinational corporations / Baffour Ankomah -- Somalia -- Is Somalia the U.S. template for all of Africa? / Cynthia McKinney -- Democratic Republic of Congo -- Disaster capitalism's greatest carnage of them all / Keith Harmon Snow -- Rwanda -- The United States and the Rwandan genocide / Charles Onana -- El Salvador -- Sh*thole El Salvador, or sh*thole USA? / S. Brian Willson -- Venezuela -- How the most reliable US oil supplier became an extraordinary threat / Alba Carosio -- Puerto Rico -- "Sh*tholing" a U.S. colony before and after hurricane Maria / Maribel Aponte-Garcøa -- Why getting the truth out is so difficult -- Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the propaganda system / David Peterson & Edward Herman -- Western imperialism and the use of propaganda / Christopher Black -- 'Cruise missile left' complicit in American escalation toward World War III / Danny Haiphong -- The United States as a "sh*thole" country -- The American people and the shithole phenomenon at home and abroad / Richard Falk -- Sh*thole hegemon : the costs of American narcissism / Kevin Barrett -- US capitalism and the opioid epidemic / Robin Eastman Abaya -- Report of the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on his mission to the United States of America / Philip Alston

"Focusing on Central America and the Caribbean, State of Disaster traces the development of U.S. refugee, humanitarian, and immigration policies in response to the 1995-2004 series of volcanic eruptions in Monserrat in the Leeward Islands, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998, and the back-to-back Hurricanes Irma and Maria of 2017 that devastated the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The case of Irma and Maria reveal afresh the neocolonial realities that sentence citizens of U.S. territories to a liminal and unequal political status that makes economic growth difficult and recovery from natural disaster especially daunting. Reflecting what technical social science and science studies indicate but also obscure, Garcia argues that it is high time that U.S. policymakers create desperately needed new policies and suggests ways to amend or create new law altogether. She reminds us that while natural disasters are impossible to prevent, much of the devastation that occurs in the wake of natural disasters is artificial and can be mitigated"--

"Focusing on Central America and the Caribbean, State of Disaster traces the development of U.S. refugee, humanitarian, and immigration policies in response to the 1995-2004 series of volcanic eruptions in Monserrat in the Leeward Islands, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998, and the back-to-back Hurricanes Irma and Maria of 2017 that devastated the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The case of Irma and Maria reveal afresh the neocolonial realities that sentence citizens of U.S. territories to a liminal and unequal political status that makes economic growth difficult and recovery from natural disaster especially daunting. Reflecting what technical social science and science studies indicate but also obscure, Garcia argues that it is high time that U.S. policymakers create desperately needed new policies and suggests ways to amend or create new law altogether. She reminds us that while natural disasters are impossible to prevent, much of the devastation that occurs in the wake of natural disasters is artificial and can be mitigated"--

Ya no se deja represents the culmination of Puerto Rico's 500 year colonial history. I utilize historiographical texts and ethnographic works to chronicle the development of insular solidarity. This narrative project focuses on proletarian lives spanning from the early days of Spanish Empire up to the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of a government deemed "genocidal" in its apathy (Bonilla, 2020 (3), 2), a new generation of Puerto Rican proletariat rose up in the summer of 2019 and declared "ya no se deja" (no more). This meant the rejection of the government's elitist rhetoric exposed in the Rickyleaks scandal, of the increasing privatization of education on the island, the continued relegation of the island to a colonial state, and a unilateral declaration that, in the words of poet Raquel Salas Rivera, "[Puerto Ricans] owe no one shame [nor] smallness". I created this research-based narrative as a part of my honors thesis, which focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Puerto Rico's tourism industry. The creative research done here helped me to understand the infrastructural, social, and economic damage done unto Puerto Rico. In the last forty years, increasing neoliberal policy and privatization has led to an already extant apathy increase in toxicity. In the aftermath of Hurricane María, many Puerto Rican communities in the interior of the island were left stranded by the government. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its own effects, with the continued pro-business government mindset focused on the provision of opportunity zones to foreign investors. Through this project, I demonstrate how the populous has historically reacted to that mindset, with a particular focus on the protests seen in the summer of 2019. I also speculate on how Puerto Ricans could rise up once more. Continued governmental incompetence could very well reactualize an indigenous, autonomous, and revolutionary spirit akin to that of their jíbaro ancestors.

Ya no se deja represents the culmination of Puerto Rico's 500 year colonial history. I utilize historiographical texts and ethnographic works to chronicle the development of insular solidarity. This narrative project focuses on proletarian lives spanning from the early days of Spanish Empire up to the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of a government deemed "genocidal" in its apathy (Bonilla, 2020 (3), 2), a new generation of Puerto Rican proletariat rose up in the summer of 2019 and declared "ya no se deja" (no more). This meant the rejection of the government's elitist rhetoric exposed in the Rickyleaks scandal, of the increasing privatization of education on the island, the continued relegation of the island to a colonial state, and a unilateral declaration that, in the words of poet Raquel Salas Rivera, "[Puerto Ricans] owe no one shame [nor] smallness". I created this research-based narrative as a part of my honors thesis, which focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Puerto Rico's tourism industry. The creative research done here helped me to understand the infrastructural, social, and economic damage done unto Puerto Rico. In the last forty years, increasing neoliberal policy and privatization has led to an already extant apathy increase in toxicity. In the aftermath of Hurricane María, many Puerto Rican communities in the interior of the island were left stranded by the government. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its own effects, with the continued pro-business government mindset focused on the provision of opportunity zones to foreign investors. Through this project, I demonstrate how the populous has historically reacted to that mindset, with a particular focus on the protests seen in the summer of 2019. I also speculate on how Puerto Ricans could rise up once more. Continued governmental incompetence could very well reactualize an indigenous, autonomous, and revolutionary spirit akin to that of their jíbaro ancestors.

ABSTRACTClimate change is increasing the intensity of extreme weather events. Mexico is particularly prone to suffer at least two different types of these events: droughts and hurricanes. This paper focuses on the effects of an extended drought on the Mexican economy. Through a computable general equilibrium model, we simulate the impact of a drought that affects primarily agriculture, livestock, forestry, and hydropower generation. We look at the effects on the overall economy. We then simulate the effects of several adaptation strategies in (chiefly) the agricultural, forestry, and power sectors, and we arrive at some tentative yet significant conclusions. We find that the effects of such an event vary substantially by sector with moderate to severe overall impacts. Furthermore, we find that adaptation policies can only effect modest changes to the economic losses to be suffered.

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1 -- Potential Options for Electric Power Resiliency in the U.S. Virgin Islands( -- Summary -- Introduction -- U.S. Virgin Islands Overview -- Population -- Economy -- Public Sector -- Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority -- VIWAPA's Power Plants -- VIWAPA's Transmission and Distribution System -- VIWAPA's Energy Efficiency Activities -- Restoration of the Electric Power System after Hurricanes Irma and Maria -- FEMA and Grid Restoration Assistance -- Collaboration with DOE and Western Area Power Administration -- Governor's Hurricane Recovery Funding Request -- Energy Planning Prior to 2017 Hurricane Season -- Past Power Evaluation Studies -- 2008 Power Evaluation Study -- EDIN-NREL Power Evaluation Study -- Comprehensive Energy Planning -- The 1982 Territorial Energy Assessment -- The 2006 Insular Areas Energy Assessment -- Making USVI's Electric Power System More Resilient -- Grid Hardening and Improving Resiliency -- Managing Costs of Hardening and Resiliency -- Reliability Through Island Transmission Interconnection -- Reducing Emissions and Renewable Generation -- Renewable Energy -- Potential Considerations for Congress -- USVI Recovery for the Energy Sector: Mitigation and Resiliency -- Legislation in the 115th Congress -- Chapter 2 -- Repair or Rebuild: Options for Electric Power in Puerto Rico( -- Summary -- Introduction -- Puerto Rico and the Electric Power Authority -- Puerto Rico's Population and Economy -- PREPA -- PREPA's Power Plants -- PROMESA: Restructuring of Puerto Rico's and PREPA's Debts -- Puerto Rico's Energy Policy Since 2014 -- Local Efforts to Restructure -- PROMESA Creates Oversight Board and Debt Restructuring Processes -- Different Directions in 2017 -- Hurricanes Irma and Maria -- PREPA's Proposed Modernization Plan -- Recovery of Electricity in Puerto Rico

AbstractEvacuation is frequently used by emergency managers and other officials as part of an overall approach to reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with hurricane landfall. In this study, the evacuation shelter capacity of the Houston–Galveston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was spatially assessed and shelter deficits in the region were estimated. These data provide essential information needed to eliminate shelter deficits and ensure a successful evacuation from a future storm. Spatial statistical methods—Global Moran's I, Anselin Local Moran's I (Local Indicators of Spatial Association [LISA]), and Hot Spot Analysis (Getis‐Ord Gi*) were used to assess for regional spatial autocorrelation and clustering of evacuation shelters in the Houston–Galveston MSA. Shelter deficits were estimated in four ways—the aggregate deficit for the Houston–Galveston MSA, by evacuation Zip‐Zone, by county, and by distance or radii of evacuation Zip‐Zone. Evacuation shelters were disproportionately distributed in the region, with lower capacity shelters clustered closer to evacuation Zip‐Zones (50 miles from the Coastal Zip‐Zone), and higher capacity shelters clustered farther away from the zones (120 miles from the Coastal Zip‐Zone). The aggregate shelter deficit for the Houston–Galveston MSA was 353,713 persons. To reduce morbidity and mortality associated with future hurricanes in the Houston–Galveston MSA, authorities should consider the development and implementation of policies that would improve the evacuation shelter capacity of the region. Eliminating shelter deficits, which has been done successfully in the state of Florida, is an essential element of protecting the public from hurricane impacts.

Intro -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Ecological Communication for Raising Awareness and Ecoliteracy for Taking Action -- Part I: Context Setting -- Chapter 1: Tension in Ecological Communication -- Chapter 2: A Corpus-Assisted Ecolinguistic Analysis of Hurricanes and Wildfires and the Potential for Corpus-Assisted Eco-Pedagogy in ELT Classrooms -- Part II: Multimodal Discourses for Ecological Action -- Chapter 3: Discourses of Cycling Advocacy and Power amidst Wars, Petro-Masculinity and Climate Inaction -- Chapter 4: Communicating the Urgency of the Climate Emergency through Verbal and Non-Verbal Metaphors -- Chapter 5: Unreliable Narratives and Social-Ecological Memory in Kara Walker's A Subtlety -- Chapter 6: (Un)welcome Waters for Multispecies Hospitality in the Anthropocene -- Chapter 7: Identity Representation of Plants in Relation to Humans and the Lifescape -- Part III: Ecoliteracy for Citizenship Education -- Chapter 8: Promoting Ecoliteracy in Essayistic Media Texts through the Case of The Anthropocene Reviewed -- Chapter 9: Picturebook Mediation for Children's Ecoliteracy in English L -- Chapter 10: Communicating In and About the Ocean through SCUBA Interaction and Ocean Picturebooks -- Chapter 11: Positive Multimodal Analysis of EU Learning Materials to Promote Ecoliteracy for Young People -- Conclusion: A Closing and an Opening for Action-Taking through Communication -- Index.

Part 1:-Background and Theoretical Context -- Chapter 1:- Introduction -- Chapter 2:- Understanding Small Island States & Territories by Acolla Lewis-Cameron & Leslie-Ann Jordan-Miller -- Chapter 3:- Conceptualising Resilience in Small Island States by Sherma Roberts -- Part 2:-Environmental Resilience -- Chapter 4:- Cruise Tourism and Resilience in Marine Ecosystems in the Caribbean: A Socio-Environmental Study of St. Lucia by Myrna Ellis -- Chapter 5:- Tourism Resilience in the Caribbean island of Cozumel: Best practice and high risk áreas by Kennedy Obombo Magio -- Chapter 6:- A resilient eco-tourism island: A case study of Dominica and its tourism recovery strategies post 2017 Hurricane Maria by Tenisha Brown-Williams and Amanda Charles -- Part 3:- Socio-Cultural Resilience -- Chapter 7:- Community resilience in the face of a natural disaster: Puerto Rico's adventure tourism industry by Mechelle Best and José H. Gonzalez -- Chapter 8:-An Integrated Path Towards a Resilient Tourism Sector in North-East Tobago by Aljoscha Wothke, Joanna Moses-Wothke and Leslie-Ann Jordan -- Chapter 9:-From exclusive to exclusion zone and back again: Marketing Montserrat under the Mount Chance eruptions by Johnathan Skinner -- Chapter 10:-Building a resilient tourism future through youth involvement and consumer-centric service excellence in Grenada by Marion Joppe & Kimberly Thomas-Francois -- Part 3:-Economic Resilience -- Chpater 11:-Increasing the Resilience of Micro, Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises to Tropical Cyclones in Small Island Developing States by Thalia Balkaran and David Smith -- Chapter 12:-Building Resilience by Strengthening the Link between Tourism and Agriculture: An Assessment of the Purchasing Patterns of Selected Hotels in Jamaica by Eritha Huntley-Lewis, Tolulope Bewaji and Clive Scott -- Chapter:- An analysis of economic and political resilience strategies adopted by The Bahamas as an archipelagic Small Island Development State by Sophia Rolle -- Chapter 14:-Integrative Entrepreneurship as a Tourism Resilience Strategy for Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Castara, Tobago by Shinelle Smith and Leslie-Ann Jordan-Miller -- Chapter 15:- Hotel Resilience to Terrorist Threats – Is there a case for Barbados? by Vincent Bradshaw -- Chapter 16:- The tension between lives and livelihoods- an analysis of resilience strategies by tourism-dependent Caribbean territories by Sherma Roberts -- Conclusion.