201808006aws2021

[201808006aws2021]

How Does Tropical Storms Effect Third World Countries and What Measures Can Be Taken To Prevent Them

“I am a student of the University of Hull blogging as part of my assessment for the module Writing the environment. All views expressed here are my own and do not represent the university”.

There are three different kinds of tropical storms:

Hurricanes – born in the Atlantic ocean

Tropical Cyclones – born in South East Asian oceans

Typhoons – born in the Pacific ocean

Tropical storms usually form between 5° and 30° latitude.

When the ocean surface waters reaches at least 27°C due to solar heating, the warm air above the water rises quickly, causing an area of very low pressure.

As the air rises quickly more warm moist air is drawn upwards from above the ocean creating strong winds.

The rising warm air spirals upward and cools. The water vapour it carries condenses and forms cumulonimbus clouds.

These cumulonimbus clouds form the eye wall of the storm.

When tropical storms reach a land surface, they begin to lose their energy and die out. This is because they are no longer receiving heat energy and moisture from the ocean, which is needed to drive them.

Source: AFP News Agency

According to Ackerman (2008) ‘Long term continental, regional and ocean basin scale changes have been observed. For example, in the last 100 years average Arctic temperatures have increased almost twice as fast as the pervious average global rate. Also, Arctic sea ice is dramatically shrinking, permafrost layers are melting, precipitation patterns are changing globally, droughts are longer and more severe, heavy rainfall events are increasing in frequency, and tropical cyclones are more intense. In general, Earth now experiences fewer cold days and nights and less frost, while the number of hot days and nights - as well as heat waves - occur more often than in the past. The oceans are also warming. Measurements indicate that not only are sea surface temperatures are increasing but that the heat has also penetrated as far as 750 meters below the surface.’

According to his article, the likely cause is by human produced greenhouse gases. Specifically, it has caused:

The warming of the oceans

An increase of continental temperatures

Temperature extremes

Changing wind patterns

Rising sea levels

These are all threats to national security, and even worse, they can have effects on natural disasters such as tropical storms. As we can see from the explanation on how tropical storms are formed, warm air is what helps create storms, so the rising temperature of the earth will likely make them more intense. Not to mention the changing of wind patterns can cause these storms to be slower and stall over vulnerable areas.

Nordhaus (2010) even states ‘Recent hurricane activity in the North Atlantic, has been extremely destructive. Hurricanes in 2005 broke many records: Most hurricanes (fifteen), most major hurricanes hitting the united states (four), the strongest recorded hurricane, and the most category 5 hurricanes (four). On the economic front, Hurricane Katrina was (in inflation corrected prices) the costliest hurricane in US history.’ and ‘Recent studies indicate that there has been an increase in the intensity of storms in the North Atlantic over the last three decades.’ Clearly showing how there has been an observed increase the intensity of storms and hurricanes within this area to a significant degree, something which cannot be ignored.

But what does it mean that global warming and climate change are threats to national security?

National Security?

Shamim (2008) claims ‘Since the end of the Cold War, there has been renewed interest in what is now called ‘non-traditional’ security issues. As late as 1985, the old cold warrior George Kennan wrote in Foreign Affairs, identifying the threat to the world environment as one of the two supreme dangers facing mankind. But it was really in the post Cold War era that the world saw a dramatic increase in international activity around environmental issues. The United Nations Environmental Program has reported that about 170 treaties have been negotiated in recent years of various issues of the global environment.’

Source:REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

But while we have mainly focused on the United States, how would tropical storms effect third world countries? Shamim considers this as well further into the article, in which he takes the focus to Bangladesh. He claims that ‘Bangladesh represents a good case study of environmental security because it’s vulnerabilities come from external and internal sources.’ The birth of Bangladesh was a violent affair, the fight for independence had left many killed and many fled to India and even after they had gained independence, guerilla warfare and civil conflict continued. Given these circumstances, environmental issues took a backburner to the greater conflicts. The repercussions of this began to show when famine ravaged part of Bangladesh in 1974 and the following flooding only made the situation worse. Although the current political regime of Bangladesh tried to downplay the famine and flooding, these events were not so easy to ignore. When the current president of the country, and the founder of the nation was killed in a military coup, there was no significant protesting over the loss of their democratically elected leader or the death of democracy itself. Shamim puts this down to the famine and the governments lack of control over the monsoons which led to the political apathy on part of the citizens.

As Shamim says ‘As the county’s environment declines, it will adversely affect economic development, erode social cohesion and lead to the destruction of political institutions. Rapid population growth, and the further lack of economic opportunities through environmental decline will cause demographic displacement both within the country and outside. This population migration to neighboring countries will give rise to regional tension and bilateral conflicts...The lack of environmental security in Bangladesh can trigger certain policy choices by the regime in power which can incite a potential conflict and harm progress towards regional security and regional cooperation. Environmental factors also have the potential to play a debilitating affect on the domestic politics of Bangladesh.’

Basically, what we see here is how environmental threats to Bangladesh meant that political and domestic instability was allowed to run unchecked. But now that we know how these disasters can affect third world countries without environmental security, what can we do about this threat? If hurricanes continue to grow more dangerous like Katrina, what can we do to protect the people?

Defense Against Natural Disaster

Seo and Bakkensen (2017) discuss strategies against storm surges.

Permanent relocation or retreat from low lying coastal zones can ensure that people are out of harms way. However, this may not be so feasible for South Asian countries due to high population density and lack of government resources. Furthermore, we also have to consider that these people are leaving their way of life and culture that has spawned from living in the area. For example people have inhabited hazard prone low lying areas such as the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta for centuries because the river there is fertile for rice and jute production.

Temporary evacuation of vulnerable communities might be more feasible if warning information is given early and individuals are able to relocate to safer land. An early warning system, along with international hurricane agencies and aided by tropical storm projections techniques would be essential in this method.

Increasing the stringency of building codes can help increase the number of dwellings that are more resistant to these natural disasters. For example, mulit-story apartments or raised stilted or piloti structures can give residents a place to escape flooding and storm surges.

Sea walls and/or polders can prevent or reduce the intensity by which seawater overtakes coastal communities and at the very least adds a layer of protections and allows time to escape. However the cost of building these structures can be significant.

Alternatively, green buffers such as mangrove forests can provide partial protection from storm surges. However, unintended spillover impacts from adaption can happen. For example, tourism may take a hit if sea walls are built along the beaches, which may be the main income for many vulnerable countries.

Policy makers also need to take into account Health services, food, sanitation and water during and after natural disasters take place. Mental health is also something to be considered, as such events can be very traumatic and many deal with depression and PTSD in the aftermath.

Seo and Bakkensen states that ‘Two currently utilized strategies in Bangladesh that have been effective at reducing fatalities include storm shelters and polders. The country began it’s public cyclone shelter program in 1972. When tropical cyclone Sidr made landfall in 2007, almost 4000 shelters across 15 coastal districts helped protect lives. The distance between shelters is sometimes as long as 5.6 km, making it difficult for people to evacuate in time without enough advance warning. However given the high value of statistical life, even in low-income countries, the evacuation strategy is likely to be cost effective. In addition, Bangladesh began employing polders to increase wave energy in coastal areas in the 1960s and 1970s. However, with the sea level rises caused by climate changes, it is unclear how so soon these may become overtopped and ineffective.’

As we can see here, the most sound decision appears to be using a range of strategies and defenses to ensure the best possible outcome, as even if we can’t stop all damage and all fatalities, it is better than total destruction. Governments should make the decision based on how effective each strategy would be based on each location and what environmental disasters need most urgent attention. However, while we cannot stop tropical storms and over natural disasters from happening, the fact remains that climate change is considered a main factor in how dangerous these natural disasters are. It seems imperative then, that while countries should invest more in environmental defense, we should also focus on stopping climate change, such as investing in more more environmentally friendly power sources and implementing solutions to fix damage we have already caused, such as the melting ice caps and trash in the ocean.

Looking back to Shamim, they discuss how population is also a factor in environmental damage. ‘The greatest problem that Bangladesh faces is an unusually large population in a small land area. It has a population density that is the highest in the world, except a few city states like Singapore. The population grew from 42 million in 1851 to about 147 million in 2005. It is projected to reach 166 million in 2015.’ This is due to Bangladesh being a conservative Muslim majority area with a ‘huge rural and traditional heartland’ where most people are illiterate and lacking in nutrition and healthcare. ‘Yet there is some good news in the demographic field. In the last 25 years Bangladesh has been able to reduce the fertility rate from 7 children to close to 3.3 in 2005.’ The population growth has been decreased in spite of the previously mentioned factors, so hopefully this will reduce the impact on the environment, thought there is still going to be a lot of hard work to reduce the population of Bangladesh.

Reflection

Though I briefly touched upon it in my presentation with my group members, I would like to reflect and discuss my contribution to the group project as well as my individual group project.

I worked with three other members on a presentation about climate in crisis. We all decided that we would focus on natural disasters and how they are affected by climate change. I decided to focus on storms or more specifically, tropical storms. When I was researching tropical storms and their connection to climate change, I came across several websites that I felt where official enough to use in my research, these being NASA and Oxfam. Nasa gave me information on how tropical storms where formed, but also how climate change affected and could potentially affect tropical storms. It was Oxfam however that game me the idea to focus on how third world countries are affected by natural disasters, as the article focused on how financially costly it was for third world countries to deal with tropical storms, and how even many years later, the people still continues to deal with the effects. This gave me the idea of researching how third world countries deal with disasters, but also made me wonder how we could defend against said disasters.

My research tied up nicely with the book Doggerland by Ben Smith, which features a world ravaged by climate change and how two men futilely keep repairing a wind farm that keeps being destroyed by storms. I felt that this book helped give perspective on how real life vulnerable communities dealt with regular disaster.

Because I wanted to focus on the effects of tropical storms on vulnerable communities and third world countries, as well as strategies against tropical storms, I felt it was appropriate to use mostly scientific journals to given me a more official perspective. In my search I looked for an even mix of articles that discussed climate change and disaster prevention in third world countries. During my research I found several interesting articles which talked about how the threat to the environment was considered a threat to national security, which I felt would help me convey the severity of climate change to anyone reading my blog. These articles where also very helpful in that they went into depth about how natural disasters affected communities, not just with physical destruction, but how they affected society and culture as well as how they could be taken advantage of by governments to cause political change while the people are too exhausted and apathetic to do anything about it.

I personally felt more comfortable using a blog to present my information as I have done this before for a previous assignment, but it also allowed me to present my information more effectively and gives sources more easily than a video format.

References

Ackerman J.T. (2008) ‘Climate Change, National Security, and the Quadrennial Defense Review: Avoiding the Perfect Storm’ Strategic Studies Quarterly Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 56-96

Nordhaus W.D. (2020) ‘THE ECONOMICS OF HURRICANES AND IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBAL WARMING’ Climate Change Economics Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-20

Seo S.N., Bakkensen L.A. (2017) ‘Is Tropical Cyclone Surge, Not Intensity, What Kills So Many People in South Asia?’  Weather, Climate, and Society Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 171-181

Shamim C. (2008)  ‘ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY IN A LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRY: THE CASE OF BANGLADESH’ Journal of Third World Studies Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 253-272

[201808006aws2021]

Performance Review on Volpone; or the Fox by Ben Johnson

201808006

“I am a student of the University of Hull blogging as part of my assessment for the module All the World’s a Stage. All views expressed here are my own and do not represent the university”.

Volpone or the Fox is a comedy play made by English playwright Ben Jonson, first produced in 1605 - 1606 and remain Jonson’s most performed play and ranked amongst the finest of Jacobean era comedies. I will be discussing how this play handles it’s conflicting themes of comedy, morality and vengeance alongside a live performance of Volpone adapted by Martin Foreman and performed by Arbery productions.

Copyright: Martin Foreman

The opening scene of the play features Volpone being woke up by his servant Mosca and worshipping his riches with religious fanaticism. Even more comedically, in the life production, as Volpone strides in front of the audience passionately speaking of his riches, Mosca continues to pull gold and riches out of strange places such as his bed and chamber pot. This opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the play, letting the audience catch onto the fact that this is a comedy and that on some level, the play isn’t going to take itself too seriously.

In the live production, we see the stage is mostly black while all of the objects are in gold such as the bed and the table cloth as well as his riches. Volpone himself is in red, to make him stand out against the background, but this also serves to say something about his character. Red is a strong passionate colour, showing how Volpone is often a very passionate character often consumed by his feelings and desires. Interestingly, it is also a colour used by those of catholic faith to show their devotion, often used by those of high position. This ties back into how Volpone used religious language to describe his wealth: “That lying here, amongst my other hoards, Show'st like a flame by night; or like the day Struck out of chaos, when all darkness fled Unto the center. Oh, thou son of Sol (But brighter than thy father) let me kiss, With adoration, thee, and every relic Of sacred treasure in this blessed room.” Volpone or the Fox 3–13

Mosca on the other hand, who is portrayed as a female maid, is dressed in black and white, almost blending into the background where is not for the white apron. This shows that unlike Volpone, Mosca is a more controlled character, someone who’s machinations are more subtle and kept to the background while Volpone is center stage. 

The following scene shows Volpone is pretending to be on death’s bed in order to gain presents and even more riches from those who desire to be his heir, seeing as he has no children of his own. We are further shown Volpone’s greed here, but the three characters who are named  Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino are shown to be just as greedy and are easily tricked into doing horrible things just to gain Volpone’s riches when he dies. In this scene, Corbaccio is convinced to removed their son from the line of succession, all so they can have the riches to themselves, despite being near death and may not even live to see Volpone die.

Something else that is shown in this scene is Mosca’s intelligence, despite Volpone being the ringleader of this operation, Mosca is the one expertly delivering this scheme, manipulating all of the three legacy hunters into falling right into their hands. From the beginning we see how Mosca secretly holds more power of Volpone, despite only being a servant which foreshadows their eventual betrayal of Volpone. But is this supposed to make us more endeared to Mosca or drive us to the more comedic and passionate Volpone. Interestingly though, the live production makes us more sympathetic towards Mosca, who is portrayed as a female here and several times must dodge Volpone’s attempts to kiss her when he is overcome with joy at her successful attempts at manipulating the three legacy hunters. Mosca even at one point calls him lecherous, which we see later in his actions towards Celia. This might make us more sympathetic towards Mosca, wishing her to overcome Volpone and take his riches for herself.

Copyright: Wolf Trap Opera

Celia and Bonario are the only two objectively ‘good’ characters within the play, victims of the other characters disgusting vices and manipulations. In most play’s and stories, these characters would defeat the villains and triumph, but in Volpone, while these two do end up happy, it is not by any success of their own. Rather, the villains of this story are brought down by their own greed and avarice. Volpone himself starts out as an instrument of this lesson—he dupes the Corvino, Corbaccio and Voltore into parting with their goods in the hope of inheriting his—but ends up an object of the lesson as well, for succumbing to his greedy want for pleasure.

The idea that evil triumphs itself is a good lesson, but it also ends up sending the message that good is helpless against evil and can only triumph through circumstance.

Bonario and Celia are not fleshed out much during the play, they remain static and uninteresting till the end, unlike Volpone, Mosca, and the three legacy hunters. While one could argue that Celia and Bonario hold no significance and the focus should be on the main characters and witnessing their downfall, one could also argue this takes away from whatever moral message Jonson is trying to tell. You can especially see this in the live production where the court is taking place, Celia and Bonario merely stand in the corner while they are subjected to scrutiny by the corrupt judges, while the other characters are allowed to be comedic, such as Corbaccio’s poor hearing causing many amusing scenes and Volpone’s over the top acting. Rather than push us away from the obviously evil and corrupt character, this would endear the audience to them.

“Now you begin, When crimes are done and past, and to be punished, To think what your crimes are: away with them. Let all that see these vices thus rewarded Take heart, and love to study 'em. Mischiefs feed Like beasts. Till they be fat, and then they bleed.”

The judge says this at the end of the play, once the truth of Volpone’s deception is revealed, imploring the audience to take heed to learn from the mistakes made by the characters in the play and to not fall victim to greed. However it is difficult for the audience to ignore what was happening before the judge started this. The judges and the court are more concerned with Volpone’s supposed rich heir, Mosca, than delivering justice. One of them even states he might be a good match for his daughter, clearly thinking more of their own gain than upholding the law. It certainly leaves a bitter taste, especially when in the live production we witness the judge tear into Celia, calling her a ‘loose woman’ and then suddenly turn around and change his mind.

We are supposed to feel good about Volpone succumbing to his greed and finally being held to account, but must live with knowing the court is just as greedy and yet will not fall. The ending feels dissatisfying, Volpone and Mosca are punished too severely, and especially if one was rooting for Mosca, the punishment feels too harsh and it feels as though Mosca is being mostly blamed for the crimes committed, despite Volpone arguably doing worse. Celia and Bonario are let off but receive little compensation for the trouble they have been put through while other characters like the three legacy hunters are not held accountable for what they did.

Jonson uses the themes of avarice and moral corruption to criticize societal degeneration and it seems his moral is used didactically and is fairly straightforward, but it seems to multiples tones of the play get in the way of this novel. The comedic tone of the play is established at the beginning and it persists throughout the play, distracting the audience from the morality of the play. Simultaneously the rather harsh ending of the play is very abrupt and disorienting for the audience, leaving them unsatisfied with the justice laid out.

Italy was seen as the seat of greed, corruption and decadance by many, with Venice only aiding in this perception for English Drama, so it was often used in play’s when featuring certain topics. This type of decadence made English people wary of being infected with immorality, and Venetians were seen as the worst of them. The direct influence of the ‘power of Venice’ to corrupt can best be seen in the Sir Politic Would-be subplot, where the English knight Sir Politic ‘goes Venetian’ and becomes a lying would-be thief. But the Venetian setting probably made the story more believable for most English audiences, perhaps against Jonson's intentions, distancing them from the play's moral message, by placing the greed in a historic faraway place traditionally associated with greed, instead of right in the heart of London where it would be difficult to ignore the message.

But perhaps this was Jonson’s intention, to force the audience to think about the media they were consuming, to consider how corruption can come from anywhere, purposely leaving us unsatisfied in order to make a point about the corruption of society.