 |
|
|
|||||
People often think of disasters as great equalizers. After all, a tornado, wildfire, or hurricane doesnt discriminate against those in its path. But the consequences for those affected are not one-size-fits-all. Thats evident in recent storms, and in the U.S. Census Bureaus national household surveys showing who is displaced by disasters. Overall, the Census Bureau estimates that more than 4.3 million Americans had to leave their homes because of disasters in 2024, whether for a short period or much longer. It was the fourth-costliest year on record for disasters. However, a closer look at demographics in the survey reveals much more about disaster risk in America and who is vulnerable. It suggests, as researchers have also found, that people with the fewest resources, as well as those who have disabilities or have been marginalized, were more likely to be displaced from their homes by disasters than other people. Decades of disaster research, including from our team at the University of Delawares Disaster Research Center, make at least two things crystal clear: First, peoples social circumstancessuch as the resources available to them, how much they can rely on others for help, and challenges they face in their daily lifecan lead them to experience disasters differently compared to others affected by the same event. And second, disasters exacerbate existing vulnerabilities. This research also shows how disaster recovery is a social process. Recovery is not a thing, but rather it is linked to how we talk about recovery, make decisions about recovery, and prioritize some activities over others. Lessons from past disasters Sixty years ago, the recovery period after the destructive 1964 Alaskan earthquake was driven by a range of economic and political interests, not simply technical factors or on need. That kind of influence continues in disaster recovery today. Even disaster buyout programs can be based on economic considerations that burden under-resourced communities. This recovery process is made even more difficult because policymakers often underappreciate the immense difficulties residents face during recovery. Following Hurricane Katrina, sociologist Alexis Merdjanoff found that property ownership status affected psychological distress and displacement, with displaced renters showing higher levels of emotional distress than homeowners. Lack of autonomy in decisions about how to repair or rebuild can play a role, further highlighting disparate experiences during disaster recovery. What the census shows about vulnerability U.S. Census data for 2023 and 2024 consistently showed that socially vulnerable groups reported being displaced from their homes at higher rates than other groups. People with less high school education had a higher rate of displacement than those with more education. So did those with low household incomes or who were struggling with employment, compared to other groups. While the Census Bureau describes the data as experimental and notes that some sample sizes are small, the differences stand out and are consistent with what researchers have found. For example, research has long pointed to how communities composed predominantly of Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander residents have disproportionately worse recovery trajectories after a disaster, often linked to aspects such as housing tenure and land-use policies. Though reporting individual experiences, the Census Bureaus findings are consistent with this research, noting a higher rate of displacement for these groups. Low-income and marginalized communities are often in areas at higher risk of flooding from storms or may lack investment in storm protection measures. The morass of bureaucracy and conflicting information can also be a barrier to a swift recovery. After Hurricane Sandy, people in New Jersey complained about complex paperwork and what felt to them like ever-changing rules. They bemoaned their housing recovery as, in researchers words, a muddled, inconsistent experience that lacked discernible rationale. Residents who dont know how to find information about disaster recovery assistance or cant take time away from work to accumulate the necessary documents and meet with agency representatives can have a harder time getting quick help from federal and state agencies. Disabilities also affect displacement. Of those people who were displaced for some length of time in 2023 and 2024, those with significant difficulty hearing, seeing, or walking reported being displaced at higher rates than those without disabilities. Prolonged loss of electricity or water due to an ice storm, wildfire, or grid overload during a heat emergency can force those with medical conditions to leave even if their neighbors are able to stay. That can also create challenges for their recovery. Displacement can leave vulnerable disaster survivors isolated from their usual support systems and healthcare providers. It can also isolate those with limited mobility from disaster assistance. Helping communities build resilience Crucial research efforts are underway to better help people who may be struggling the most after disasters. For example,our center was part of an interdisciplinary team that developed a framework to predict community resilience after disasters and help identify investments that could be made to bolster resilience. It outlines ways to identify gaps in community functioning, like healthcare and transportation, before disaster strikes. And it helps determine recovery strategies that would have the most impact. Shifts in weather and climate and a mobile population mean that peoples exposure to hazards are constantly shifting and often increasing. The Coastal Hazard, Equity, Economic Prosperity, and Resilience Hub, which our center is also part of, is developing tools to help communities best ensure resilience and strong economic conditions for all residents without shortchanging the need to prioritize equity and well-being. We believe that when communities experience disasters, they should not have to choose among thriving economically, ensuring all residents can recover, and reducing risk of future threats. There must be a way to account for all three. Understanding that disasters affect people in different ways is only a first step toward ensuring that the most vulnerable residents receive the support they need. Involving community members from disproportionately vulnerable groups to identify challenges is another. But those, alone, are not enough. If we as a society care about those who contribute to our communities, we must find the political and organizational will to act to reduce the challenges reflected in the census and disaster research. This article, originally published March 4, 2024, has been updated with latest severe storms and 2024 census data. Tricia Wachtendorf is a professor of sociology and director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. James Kendra is the director of the Disaster Research Center and a professor of public policy & administration at the University of Delaware. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
A viral clip of a woman scrolling on a completely clear phone with no user interface briefly confusedand amusedthe internet. But the truth turned out to be far more literal than most expected. Originally posted to TikTok by user CatGPT, the video quickly racked up over 52.9 million views. In the comments, some speculated it was a Nokia model; others guessed it came from the Nickelodeon show Henry Danger. @askcatgpt Completely clear phone spotted in San Francisco on May 14?!? Wtf?????? Link in bio for more deets. (NOT SPONSORED) original sound – CatGPT This looks like a social commentary or a walking art exhibit. Im too uncultured to understand, one user commented. It’s from a Black Mirror episode, another wrote. Turns out, it was none of the above. Just a piece of plastic. The woman seen in line is also the one who uploaded the clip. In a follow-up video posted days later, she shared the true story. This is a Methaphone, she explains. It is exactly what it looks like, a clear piece of acrylic shaped like an iPhone. The “device” was invented by her friend as a response to phone addiction. He told me that what he wanted to test was, if were all so addicted to our phones, then could you potentially curb somebodys addiction by replacing the feeling of having a phone in your pocket with something that feels exactly the same? she continued. This little piece of acrylic feels like a physical artifact that directly responds to this collective tension we all feel about how our devices, which are meant to make us more connected, are actually having the exact opposite effect. A 2023 study by Reviews.org found that nearly 57% of Americans reported feeling addicted to their phones. Some admitted to checking their phones over 100 times a day, and 75% said they feel uneasy when they realize theyve left their phone at home. In the comments, many questioned whether pretending to scroll on a chunk of plastic could actually help with phone addiction. This sounds like [an] SNL sketch, one user wrote. What stage of capitalism is this? another asked. Some were simply disappointed it wasnt a real phone. Despite the skepticism, the Methaphone raised $1,100 on Indiegogo. The campaign has since closed, though the creator says more may be produced if demand is high. Priced at $20, with a neon pink version going for $25, the Methaphone looks like a simple acrylic slaband it is, the page reads. But it’s also a stand-in, a totem, and an alibi. It’s the first step on the road to freedom.
Category:
E-Commerce
Michael Long is not the typical neuroscience guy. He was trained as a physicist, but is primarily a writer. He coauthored the international bestseller The Molecule of More. As a speechwriter, he has written for members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, presidential candidates, and Fortune 10 CEOs. His screenplays have been performed on most New York stages. He teaches writing at Georgetown University. Whats the big idea? Dopamine is to blame for a lot of your misery. It compels us to endlessly chase more, better, and greatereven when our dreams have come true. Thanks to dopamine, we often feel restless and hopeless. So no, maybe its not quite accurate to call it the happiness molecule, but it has gifted humans some amazing powers. Dopamine is the source of imagination, creativity, and ingenuity. There are practical ways to harness the strengths of our dopamine drives while protecting and nurturing a life of consistent joy. Below, Michael shares five key insights from his new book, Taming the Molecule of More: A Step-by-Step Guide to Make Dopamine Work for You. Listen to the audio versionread by Michael himselfin the Next Big Idea App. 1. Dopamine is not the brain chemical that makes you happy. Dopamine makes you curious and imaginative. It can even make you successful, but a lot of times it just makes you miserable. Thats because dopamine motivates you to chase every new possibility, even if you already have everything you want. It turns out that brain evolution hasnt caught up with the evolution of the world. For early humans, dopamine ensured our survival by alerting us to anything new or unusual. In a world with danger around every corner and resources hard to acquire, we needed an early warning system to motivate us even more. Dopamine made us believe that once we got the thing we were chasing, wed be safer, happier, or more satisfied. That served humans well, until it didnt. Now that weve tamed the world, we dont need to explore every new thing, but dopamine is still on duty, and it works way out of proportion to the needs of the modern world. Since self-discipline has a short shelf life, I share proven techniques that dont rely on willpower alone. 2. Dopamine often promises more than reality can deliver. When we have problems obsessing with social media or the news, or when were doing excessive shopping, we feel edgy and restless. This is because dopamine floods us with anticipation and urgency. We desperately scroll for the next hit, searching for the latest story or watching the porch for that next Amazon package. As this anticipation becomes a normal way of living, the rest of life starts to feel dull and flat. That restarts the cycle of chasing what we think will make us happy. Then we get it, and when it doesnt make us happy, we experience a letdown, and that makes us restless all over again. Heres how that works for love and romance. When we go on date after date and cant find the right person, or a long-term relationship gets stale, we start to feel hopeless. The dopamine chase has so raised our expectations about reality that we no longer enjoy the ordinary. Now were expecting some perfect partner, and we wont find them because they dont exist. Fight back with three strategies: Rewire your habits to ditch the chase. Redirect your focus to the here and now. Rebuild meaning so life feels more like it matters. I describe specific ways to do this through simple planning, relying more on friendships, and doing a particular kind of personal assessment. And theres even a little technology involved that you wouldnt expect. 3. Dopamine is the source of imagination. The dopamine system has three circuits. The first has only a little to do with behavior and feeling, so well set that one aside. The second circuit (that early warning system) is called the desire dopamine system because it plays on our desires. The third system is very different. Its called the control system, and it gives us an ability straight out of science fiction: mental time travel. You can create in your mind any possible future in as much detail as you like and investigate the results without lifting a finger. We do this all the time without realizing thats what it is. Little things like figuring out where to go for lunch: We factor in traffic, how long well have to wait for a table and think over the menu, and game it all out to decide where to go. But this system also lets us imagine far more consequential mental time travel, figuring out the best way to build a building, design an engine, or travel to the moon. Dopamine really is the source of creativity and analytical power that allows us to create the future. The dopamine control circuit lets us think in abstractions and play out various plans using only our minds. That means not only can we imagine a particular future, but we can also imagine entire abstract disciplines, come to understand them, and make use of them in the real world based on what we thought about. Fields like chemistry, quantum mechanics, and number theory exist because of controlled dopamine. Dopamine really is the source of creativity and analytical power that allows us to create the future. Dopamine brings a lot of dissatisfaction to the modern world, but we wouldnt have the modern world without dopamine. 4. Youre missing out on the little things. When my best friend died at age 39, the speaker at his funeral said, You may not remember much of what you did with Kent, but its okay, because it happened. I did not know what that could mean, but years later, while writing this book, I got it. We dont live life just to look back on it. The here and now ought to be fun. You may not remember it all, but while its happening, enjoy it. That requires fighting back against dopamine because its always saying: Never mind whats in front of you; think about what might be. When Warren Zevon was at the end of his life, David Letterman asked him what hed learned. Warren said, Enjoy every sandwich. 5. A satisfying life requires meaning, and theres a practical way to find it. Even if you fix every dopamine-driven problem in your life, you may still feel like something is missing. To find a satisfying balance between working for the future and enjoying the here and now, we must choose a meaning for life and work toward it as we go. If youre making life better for others with something you do well and enjoy, the days feel brighter and life acquires purpose. Is it possible to live in the moment, anticipate the future, and have it add up to something? The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl said we need to look beyond ourelves, because thats where a sense of purpose begins. Aristotle gave us a simple formula for taking pleasure in the present, finding a healthy anticipation for the future, and creating meaning. He said its found where three things intersect: what we like to do, what were good at, and what builds up the world beyond ourselves. Things like working for justice, making good use of knowledge, or simply living a life of kindness and grace. What you do with your life doesnt have to set off fireworks, and you dont have to make history. You can be a plumber, a mail carrier, or an accountant. Im a writer. I like what I do. I seem to be pretty good at it, and it helps people. The same can be true if you repair the highway, fix cars, or serve lunch in a school cafeteria. If youre making life better for others with something you do well and enjoy, the days feel brighter and life acquires purpose. Life needs meaning, and thats the last piece of the puzzle in dealing with dopamine and taming the molecule of more. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||