Frozen Animals on the Steppe


In the winter of 2010, herders in central mongolia faced an animal famine crisis within the slow moving disaster of desertification. That winter about 8.5 million herd animals, goats, sheep, and cattle froze to death in up to -58 degree fahrenheit temperatures. The animals are a crucial food source as well as frequently the sole wealth and economic engine for herders in the region. As in the Minamisanriku tsunami and nuclear disaster in the Spring of 2011, this crisis is a hybrid of natural and man made origins.

Desertification is the process of the degredation of plant life on the steppe, the grassland plain that provides the nutrition for herd animals. A combination of climactic change, overgrazing, and deforestation is gradually pushing the Gobi desert into the homeland of nomadic herders. A dry summer and cold wet winter in 2010 tipped the fragile ecosystem into disaster. Without proper nutrition and hydration, the animals entered the brutal winters on the steppe without the fat and strength to survive the 8 month winter.

The Mongolians have a  term “dzud” which refers to the combination of summer drought and severe winter that hardens snow and ice into an impenetrable layer and makes it impossible for livestock to feed. Like the Japanese, Mongolians know the particular risks of the region in which they live, and yet this isn’t sufficient to prevent the economic activity of grazing (in Japan, fishing) that makes them prone to disaster. In Mongolia the economic growth that came out of independence from the Soviet Union precipitated the 40% growth in livestock that precipitated the crisis. As in Japan, the risk is as high as ever that another round of dry summer and wet winter will initiate another crisis of potentially even greater magnitude.

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Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake: Aftermath

 Posted by Donguk Lee on February 14, 2012
Feb 142012
 

On January 17th 1995, one of the most infamous Japan earthquakes was happened in Kobe and left 6,425 dead, 25,000 injured and 300,000 displaced. And, it caused a demolition of 100,000 buildings.[1] This earthquake could be considered as a latest disaster in Japan which could be compared with Tohoku earthquake in terms of scale of damage. As the numbers indicate, it caused not only a great number of casualties but also a multitude of broken artifacts.

In post-disaster situation, people in this area have to deal with a great burden of debris to reconstruct the town. It almost took 3 years and 3.2 billion dollars just to clean up the remnants of massive edifices before new construction.[2] As the following chart shows, the volume of debris too big to be easily eradicated.

Table 1. Debris Quantities in Past Events

Year

Event

Debris Volume

Data Source

2011

Tohoku   earthquake

25   mill tones

(Yomiuri, 2011)[2]

2008

Sichuan earthquake

20 mill tones

(Taylor, 2008)[3]

1999

Marmara earthquake

13 mill tones

(Baycan, 2004)[4]

1995

Hanshin-Awaji   earthquake

14.5   mill tones

(Yomiuri, 2011)[2]

 

Not only the debris volume per se but also this chart indicates two more critical crises in post-disaster Japan. Firstly, we have to consider about the gross volume of destruction in Japan. Since this country is located in unstable geographic zone, the Circum-Pacific orogeny, it has been suffered by numbers of frequent earthquakes. And, those result as an excessive volume of debris. But the eradication process of this artificial debris is not sustainable in terms of capacity of nature’s self-purification. Thus the constant collection of debris due to the continuous earthquakes in the country is creating more desperate situation for Japan.

Collapse of Bank Building. ©Tokyo University.

On top of it, we also have to think about a growing physical volume of artificial structures in cities. Since a building technology has been advanced and economic growth has been made, the growing cities have been bulged with higher volume of artifacts than ever before. Consequently, the cities should have to face a bigger volumetric collapse.

In these regards, we could infer that sustainable way of processing debris in post-disaster situation is critical for Japan. Recent article about Tohoku area is already reporting that the reconstruction of this area facing great difficulty because of these excessive artificial detritus. [2]

Because of these reasons, I am getting more convinced with the concept of ‘deconstruction’. Deconstruction is a process of both decomposition and reorganization. It should be separated from the concept of destruction in terms of existence of reassembling. At the moment, our process of debris could be considered more of destruction, since we mostly just clear out the sites after the artifacts have been destroyed.

However, I want to input the notion of deconstruction into the process of debris. With this input of concept, we could possibly find out the better way for post-disaster reconstructions. And this following animation shows a figurative model for deconstruction process that I am conceiving.

 

Deconstruction:

From Decomposed Debris

to Reorganized Structure

 

 

 

 

 

[1] T.R. Reid. 1995. National Geographic. July. 1995.

[2] Yomiuri Shimbun. 2011. Mountains of debris overwhelm Japanese. 04. 17. 2011.

[3] Taylor, A. 2008. Sichuan’s earthquake, six months later. The Boston Globe.

[4] Baycan, F. 2004. Emergency Planning for Disaster Waste: A Proposal based on the experience of the Marmara. Earthquake in Turkey. Coventry. UK.

 
Aftermath of Great Kanto earthquake showing the fire near the Yamashita bridge in the Kyobashi district

When a natural disaster strikes a nation, it leaves the nation’s people vulnerable to danger and uncertainty. These risks are not limited to just the physical wreckage, but also penetrates the political and psychological environment. The period of unrest and insecurity following a disaster is a dangerous one that has the potential to bring to the surface false notions and beliefs about who is to blame for the rising crisis.

The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 in Japan is a prime example of how a political conflict and crisis can follow a natural disaster. As a result of the earthquake and tsunami, other incidents such as raging fires and poisoned water wells fell upon Japan’s Honshū region. (The following images are postcards that depict the fires that razed Japan’s cities.)

(More photos can be accessed here.)

Since these phenomena did not appear to be directly related to the earthquake, rumors accusing individual parties and factions of starting fires and poisoning the water started to spread. Since 1910, Korea was a colony under Japanese rule, and many Japanese civilians viewed the Koreans with suspicion of rebellion and revolution. These sentiments only fueled the rumors, and the realm of suspect also expanded to include the Chinese, Okinawans, and speakers of more local Japanese dialects.

The characters in the Japanese language, ga gi gu ge go (がぎぐげご) – though other sources may cite other ra ri ru re ro (らりるれろ) – were used as a shibboleth to identify the ethnicities of individuals.

Hiragana Pronounciation

Not only were outsiders targeted, but the vigilante violence also infiltrated Japan’s own politics. The nationalist government of Japan met opposition with unionists, socialists, and anarchists – advocates of “left-wing” thinking – and a number of radicals fell subject to the wave of civilian crime and fear.

As mentioned in a paper published by Clancey and Orihara:

“Print reactions began to extend their range beyond the traumatized and tragic, and the search for scientific explanations, to include the optimistic and even euphoric, the later condition being referred to in some disaster-studies writings as ‘post-disaster utopianism.’”

A question worth asking is, then, how far will the human condition allow such a witch hunt and a desperate, idealistic search for a resolution to go? Estimated death tolls as a result of the massacre reach up to 6,000, though the number reported by the government lies only in the hundreds.

It is interesting to consider how the after-effects of the earthquake garnered an overarching feeling of suspicion and ill-will toward a particular group of individuals, and why there existed such a need to identify and rectify a root cause. A parallel can be drawn in relating the massacres and series of crimes in 1923 to the 3/11 crisis in Japan, though in contemporary 2011, the conflict has arisen from the nuclear crisis. The victim – in some opinions, the scapegoat – is clear: Tokyo Electric Power Co. However, in targeting the utilities, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) also faces public criticism for failing to properly manage the entire situation, for hesitating in making crucial decisions, and for falling short in making amends. Consequently bureaucrats look for the return of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and while the political factions are reversed in this situation, there is still this growing conflict and underlying power struggle between two internal political groups in Japan.