Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening PDF
Preview Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening
Keith G. Tidball Marianne E. Krasny Editors Greening in the Red Zone Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening Greening in the Red Zone Keith G. Tidball (cid:129) Marianne E. Krasny Editors Greening in the Red Zone Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening Editors Dr. Keith G. Tidball Dr. Marianne E. Krasny Department of Natural Resources Department of Natural Resources Cornell University Cornell University Fernow Hall, Ithaca, NY, USA Fernow Hall, Ithaca, NY, USA ISBN 978-90-481-9946-4 ISBN 978-90-481-9947-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9947-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress Control Number: 2013933045 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, speci fi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on micro fi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied speci fi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speci fi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Cover image photographer: Harry Shepherd Cover caption: A bomb crater in 1942 London is transformed into a garden Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) I dedicate this book to the memory of my mother, who taught me the value of defying the limitations of the ‘impossible’ and of fi ghting the tyranny of apathy and indifference. Keith G. Tidball I dedicate this book to my father John Krasny, who experienced one of the great diasporas of the last century in escaping from Nazi Europe, returned to Europe with the US forces in Germany, and went on to create a long and productive life for himself and his family in the US. Marianne E. Krasny Foreword I was intrigued when I saw the title G reening in the Red Zone , because I wasn’t sure what the volume was about. I was pretty sure that greening referred to practices that were environmentally or ecologically friendly, but I didn’t have a clue what the authors meant by a red zone. Indeed, I thought that it had something to do with the section of the fi eld in the game of football as played in the United States. But I soon realized that it was about something much more serious, and refers to areas on the planet, from local to regional in scale, that have been subjected to, and recovering from, a variety of shocks or disturbances. The current year (2011) has already been one of the most costly as a result of extreme weather events. The winter storms in the US and Europe, as well as the tsunami in Japan, all disrupted production and transportation systems. While the number of tornadoes in the US was not unusual this past spring, they occurred over heavily developed and populated regions of the US, destroying lives and homes. Flooding in the northern US and droughts in the south have also disrupted agricul- tural production and transportation systems, with direct and indirect economic losses. Because of this litany of environmental crises, economic losses have been estimated at around 35 billion US$ for 2011, and the year is only two-thirds com- plete. But such assessments do not address the human dimensions of such events, nor do they include the costs of other types of disasters. While humans have dealt with these disasters for millennia, the rising costs of coping with these events have led to an increase in the need for understanding both the theory and the practice of crisis management, especially from a human perspective. I write this foreword in late summer, which in the coastal regions of southeastern US is also known as hurricane season. Although I no longer live in Florida, I still clearly remember the childhood experience of living through a category four storm. Among my recollections of Hurricane Donna include the seemingly eternal howling winds, and afterwards, the unforeseen and incredible destruction. I remember at the height of the storm seeing our neighbor’s roof being lifted up and carried away into the howling winds, later my mother struggling to seal a shattered window, listening for news on the radio of the car in the garage, and walking outside during the eye of vii viii Foreword the storm. After the storm, I was amazed by the destruction to the vegetation. Many of the trees were completely defoliated. Tree trunks of the native pines had snapped like twigs, broken off in midair, while all of the non-native Australian pines ( Casuarinas spp.) were blown over. I also remember marveling at how the palm trees had survived such ferocious winds, even though fl ying lumber had skewered many of their trunks. Such memories from my childhood, now over 50 years ago, were elicited while reading the contents of this volume about the recovery and res- toration of social-ecological systems after such devastating events. The editors and authors of this book use the phrase red zone to refer to areas that have been impacted by disasters. These include weather or geophysical disasters, such as earthquakes or cyclones (tornadoes, hurricanes and typhoons), which are relatively short-term events that result in losses of life, property and infrastructure. Many of the cases in this book also describe human caused crises, ranging from the terrible impacts of small-scale human violence from street gangs to the broader scale ravages caused by international wars. Many of the cases focus on the results of twentieth and more recent twenty- fi rst century con fl icts, such as World War II and others in Asia, Africa and Europe. Red zones that existed under oppressive political regimes, such as communism in Europe or apartheid in Africa, are also included. The stories portray how people historically (and still do so in the present) assisted with the recovery and renewal of ecosystems in red zones around the world. The examples include the creation of a park in post-earthquake Haiti, community gar- dens in post-apartheid South Africa, the creation of a national park and the develop- ment of horticultural practices in war torn Afghanistan, and the restoration of forests following Hurricane Hugo in Charleston, South Carolina. Planting and cultivating are the physical acts by which people help restore ecosystem goods and services, such as provisioning of food, regulating biogeochemical cycles, and conserving biodiversity. The re fl ections and lessons also demonstrate how the practice of green- ing is therapeutic to humans as they restore the aesthetic and spiritual bene fi ts lost from these systems, and the cultures and communities that build upon such bene fi ts One of the interdisciplinary concepts used throughout the volume is the notion of resilience. Indeed, this volume is one of an increasing number of scholarly works that are deepening our understanding of this concept. The term resilience has been around for decades and is generally used to describe how a system (from human beings to biotic communities) responds to external shocks or disturbances. Some de fi ne resilience in terms of recovery—how long it takes, what are factors that enhance recovery, and how to recover to a pre-disturbance condition. That is cer- tainly important for human well-being, whether it is an individual who was trauma- tized by war or a hurricane or a collective society after a terrorist attack or a tsunami. Other scholars think about resilience in terms of the amount of disturbance that will transform the system into something new and different. That is the type of resilience that is discussed and presented in this volume, how humans use their deep connec- tions with nature to shape change in ways that is transformative. Foreword ix We live in a world that is changing in ways never before witnessed by humans. The scales of those changes are no longer at geographically local, manageable lev- els, but are occurring at the planetary scale. Even though ecological phenomena of fi res, storms, earthquakes and tsunamis have happened for millennia, they are creat- ing novel and unpredictable impacts, as human components of social-ecological systems are becoming more vulnerable and reactive to loss. The physical and cul- tural infrastructure that has developed over the last few centuries is threatened, as indicated by an erosion of resilience. But this volume provides an antidote against a dystopic future, by presenting scholarly, sage and thoroughly practical guidance. By bringing together different fi elds of scholarship and ideas, including resilience, bio- philia and ecosystem stewardship among others, the authors effectively portray hard won lessons on how human and ecological systems effectively recover from disas- ters. In other words, this volume is in itself a garden of hope, showing that recovery, renewal, and rehabilitation of humans and ecosystems is critically co-dependent. The editors and authors should all be commended for showing us pathways to a greener future. Mathematics and Science Center Lance Gunderson Emory University Atlanta, GA, USA
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