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When I signed up for this class, I assumed disaster’s were limited to natural occurrences. Even while we were listing off disasters in class, I didn’t believe that terrorism, car accidents, or other man-made disasters would satisfy the disaster definition. I’ve always associated disasters with natural phenomenons and tragedies with man-made screw ups. Part of this association comes from the loss of life and capital that we were discussing in class. Human error rarely causes as much devastation as natural disasters. One of my favorite childhood memories stems from the show “Wrath of God” put on by the Weather Channel. The show recounted various storms of epic proportions. I’d watch it with my mom at nights (past my eight-thirty bedtime, so it was that much better), and we both were in awe of the sheer power some storms could produce. It was awesome. Point is, that show defined disaster for me. Sure, I thought the death of Princess Diana was a terrible thing, but I considered that a tragedy. 9/11 was a tragedy. School shootings are a tragedy. These are all tragedies because it’s tragic that human malcontent or error caused harm to other humans. Although Google’s dictionary (and there’s no arguing with Google), essentially defines the words tragedy and disaster as interchangeable, the specific connotations for me are a little different.
However, reading Bergman’s article, I found Matthew Mulcahy’s definition better than Google’s. He states, “disasters become disasters only when natural forces meet human ones.” (936) Bergman continues this way of thinking by claiming that disasters reveal weaknesses in social and environmental systems. He couldn’t be more right. Think about it. Why was Katrina so devastating? Because we built a city below sea level and our human levies broke, which allowed further flooding. Would Katrina be as devastating if the same storm hit a different area? Or better yet, would the storm even be a disaster if our buildings were all concrete and elevated off the ground (or made out of this arch’s material)
? Granted it’d be a hideous city with strictly concrete buildings, but the point is that the storm was made a disaster because of the human aspects combining with the power of nature. As Bergman claims on page 940, disaster is now an “artifact of culture.” For example, fires were more devastating before Benjamin Franklin created Fire Departments (where’s Benny Hartshorn for this one?!), but our culture adapted to control this disaster causing event. Fires are still an issue, especially out west, but we’re much better prepared to handle these wildfires. So the damage and cost of life wildfires cause is greatly reduced now than 300 years ago.