In early February, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass officially demoted Fire Chief Kristin Crowley over claims that she improperly managed the Los Angeles fires. In defending Bass, an anonymous advisor told Politico, “sometimes what’s good for the city is not what’s good politically.” As disputes between the two are now overwhelmingly public, the focus of […]
Tag: natural disasters
Volcano Fears Heat Up in Iceland
In November of last year, after detecting a flow of moving magma stretching nine miles long under Grindavík, a fishing village in southwest Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, officials ordered an evacuation of at least 3,000 people living in the area. Although the evacuation took place as a preventative measure, not because citizens were in immediate danger, […]
Brace for Impact, California
No matter what we do, we’re going to feel the effects of climate change. How bad these effects will be depends heavily on our mitigation efforts. Reducing our carbon emissions and investing in carbon reduction efforts are effective ways to prevent much of the worst effects, but cannot ensure the world will be unaffected. California […]
The Perfect Storm: Politics of Disaster Management
Rich and poor nations across the globe are confronted with natural disasters every year that test their political leaders’ competence and acumen. During Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) poor leadership under Michael Brown, the agency director appointed and praised by President Bush, cost the president public support. In 2012, the public rewarded President […]
The United States… And Territories: America’s Paradise Lost
On October 13, one news headline stood out among the rest: “Trump says he spoke to U.S. Virgin Islands’ ‘president’ — which is him.” “Must’ve been a one-sided conversation,” one Twitter user noted. The Daily Show put out a video of Trump shaking hands with his “genetic replica.” This hilarity momentarily puts a spotlight on […]
The United States… And Territories: The State of Puerto Rico
Praying for my friends and family. Can’t communicate with my family. I don’t know anything about them, this is desperate. But I trust in God that they’ll be okay. My sister-in-law follows each Facebook post with a video of the storm. A Miami transplant, she’s luckily away from her hometown in Puerto Rico. But much […]
Rebuild and Recover
Rebuild and Recover: Earthquakes and Economic Crisis Strike Central Italy Central Italy is still reeling from a string of powerful earthquakes that rocked the region in late October. Dozens of hilltop towns were flattened, dealing further damage to communities already emptied by a grinding economic recession. Many villages were razed and almost 50,000 were displaced […]