Fordham Lecture Series
Investing in the Environment, Protecting Communities from Natural Disasters

Dr. Nancy A. Busch-Rossnagel, Dean of Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Mr. Steve Dennin, Director of the New York Office of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) welcomed all in attendance. Special thanks were extended to Ms. Nancy Gillis (who subsequently introduced the moderator and panelists) for her efforts in realizing the lecture series.

Dr. Sanjayan Muttulingam, Lead Scientist at the Nature Conservancy and lecture moderator, provided a brief introduction. Dr. Muttulingam highlighted the association between climate change and the increase in environmental disasters across the globe. Drawing from Nature Conservancy experience, specifically in mapping the impact of damage following the 2004 Tsunami, Dr. Muttulingam presented slides depicting two hotels (one intact, the other destroyed beyond recognition) separated by a few short miles. Generally, areas with intact mangroves, coral reefs, and coastal dunes suffered less damage at the hands of the Tsunami.

Those most impacted by the Tsunami were the poorest, most marginalized, and most dependent on natural resources. Dr. Muttulingam touched on the sometimes unintended consequences of aid. In the Sri Lankan context, a surplus of boats donated in the wake of the Tsunami saturated the number of active fisherman and depleted fish stocks. The best of intentions if unorganized can be detrimental. Dr. Muttulingam stressed the impact from natural disasters disproportionately impacts the poor and that intact habitats are effective in mitigating the impact of natural disasters, particularly on vulnerable populations.

The first panelist was Ms. Annie Maxwell, Partnerships and Outreach Officer for the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. Orienting her presentation around the post-Tsunami reconstruction effort, Ms. Maxwell began by challenging the widespread internalization of the connection between environmental conservation and disaster prevention, asking if the connection as it is reflected in policy and in multilateral mandates is actually being embraced.

Maxwell outlined three challenges facing the international community with regard to natural disasters: urgency, coordination, and local capacity. In terms of urgency, post-disaster reconstruction imposes time constraints in what amounts to a necessity of returning to normalcy. The massive loss of homes in the Tsunami left in its wake an unusually high demand for construction materials. This placed strains on the natural environment: when wood was not available legally, it was acquired illegally. With regards to coordination, an unprecedented amount of money was acquired by a wide-range of NGOs with no centralized coordination mechanism. Redundancies and inefficiencies abounded. Finally, local capacity is affected most noticeably in the teaching, construction, police and sanitation sectors where they become overwhelmed with the workload resulting from damage and a lost labor force. As a closing note of optimism, Ms. Maxwell noted greater awareness in the international arena of disaster risk reduction and environmental conservation.

The second panelist was Senior Attorney for Natural Resources Defense Council, Erik D. Olson. With an emphasis on Hurricane Katrina, Olson focused his lecture on what he called “nature-triggered man-made disasters”. Due to clear indications of the onset of climate chaos (change), the loss of sediment, and poor construction and design of levies, disasters like Hurricane Katrina cannot simply be blamed on Mother Nature. Emerging in the wake of Katrina, Olson highlighted a number of environmental justice issues that developed at the intersection of poor policy and discrimination. Low-income communities (predominantly African-American) were forced into high-risk zones and told they did not need insurance. Olson noted that the disaster was not mentioned once in the State of the Union Address (of the previous evening). The impression was that the Federal government is moving on and wiping its hands of responsibility. Olson suggested the impact of the hurricane could extend to issues of voting and civil rights, changed voting patterns with large sections of African-American voters being uprooted and relocated.

Building on various themes touched upon by the other panelists and bringing a different perspective to the discussion, Architect for the Green Building Division of the City of Portland and Program Director of Rebuilding Community International Gregory Acker was the final panelist to speak.

Acker presented three patterns to illustrate that disaster outcomes are a direct consequence of our choices. The first pattern is that disasters put a spotlight on poverty; the disaster breaks us out of our routines to recognize the poor and then, slowly, we forget until the next disaster. Between disasters, however, there is very little planning. The second pattern highlighted was that of manmade urban disasters. In the context of facilitating migration to urban centers, Acker likened the Internet to the transistor radio of the past. People are being drawn to urban centers at accelerating rates and the challenges the increased demands their presence poses is to build more sustainably. Sustainable cities, in Acker’s view, are diligent, dense, diverse, designed (they endure because they’re endeared) and are driverless (low in personal automobile usage). The third and final pattern recognized by Acker was global warming. He outlined Portland’s success in reducing emissions by building more bike trails, achieving a high rate of participation in recycling, and by demonstrating to the public that conservation and environmentally-friendly living can save money.