Famins Flashcards
What characterizes droughts?
unusual dry period that lead to a shortage of usable water
What are essential features of droughts?
They create a “creeping hazard” - it develops slowely, prolonged existence
-social vulnerability is extremely important (national wealth)
What types of droughts can be classified (in order of increasing potential for disaster)?
- Meteorological
- Hydrological
- Agricultural
- Famine
What are the 4 drought types characterized by? Where do they come from and what do they lead to?
- Meteorological - rainfall deficit –> ?
- Hydrological drought - groundwater levels are sufficiently reduced to impact adversely on water resources –> Impacts urban water supply
- Agricultural - soil moisture deficit –> impacts crop yields
- Famine - food deficit –> starvation and death
What factors cause droughts?
- Physical factors
–> large scale interactions between the atmosphere and the oceans - human factors
- population density?
- reliance on rain-fed agriculture
- increased pressure on land: soil erosion and degradation
- poverty …
What ways of mitigation and protection exist for droughts and resulting famins?
- Food-aid: short-term solution
- controlling the environment: artificial stimulation of rainfall
- additional supply of water
- “tech-fix” solitions: dams and pipelines
- community preparedness (diversification of agriculture - drought-resistant crops, diverse herds, etc.)
Define Famine
A famine is an acute episode of extreme hunger that results in excess mortality due to starvation or hunger induced diseases
How did the british governement reacted to the great famine (1876-1878)?
- did not intertwine into the market, nor did they provide food, went on with wead exports
- started “work camps” - work to get food
- Distance test: Camps outside of the cities - many did not survive the march there
- only 1700 calories per day
- very hard work - building bridges, railways…
- camps as ideal breeding grounds for diseases. cholera victims (6-10 mil. deaths)
What were reasons for the high social vulnerability of the Indian society in the time of the great famine?
- Bad Government management
- cash-crops instead of food crops (opium…)
- very high general exploitation of the people –> high tax burden–> people already on the edge of substantion
- privitazition of commens
What are commens and how are they connected to famins?
Commens are part of the land that belongs to the community, were the access is regulated by democratic civil organizations
–> these areas are very important in moments of droughts for example because they can help to prevent people from starvation and famines
How are droughts quantified?
RELATIVE amounts
- rainfall reliability is more important than absolute amounts
- important to view water shortage in terms of need rather than absolute amounts
- Droughts and famines are often perceived as cause and effect - actually more complex then that
