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Climate Change and Disasters

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Handbook of Disaster Research

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Ideas and approaches proven successful within disaster risk reduction (DRR) literature and practice are either bypassed or inadequately considered by contemporary climate change work. This chapter explores the intersections between climate change and hazards, vulnerability, and risk, looking at climate change as both a hazard driver and a hazard inhibitor. The implications of the narrow interpretations of vulnerability employed in climate change work are examined, as well as the ways in which climate change has come to act as a scapegoat for issues, events, and processes caused by hazard-independent factors. The chapter formulates a case for climate change adaptation (CCA) to be seen as a subset of DRR and for climate change mitigation (CCM) to sit within existing pollution prevention approaches, with both DRR and pollution prevention sitting within broader sustainability and development processes. The chapter concludes with ways forward to overcome the deeply entrenched demarcations amongst CCA, CCM, DRR, and development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Katherine Hore & JC Gaillard

  2. University College London, London, UK

    Ilan Kelman

  3. University of Agder, Kristiansan, Norway

    Ilan Kelman

  4. Independent Consultant, Secure Futures, Whitchurch, UK

    Jessica Mercer

Authors
  1. Katherine Hore
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  2. Ilan Kelman
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  3. Jessica Mercer
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  4. JC Gaillard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine Hore .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, New York, USA

    Havidán Rodríguez

  2. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, USA

    William Donner

  3. Core Faculty, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA

    Joseph E. Trainor

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Hore, K., Kelman, I., Mercer, J., Gaillard, J. (2018). Climate Change and Disasters. In: Rodríguez, H., Donner, W., Trainor, J. (eds) Handbook of Disaster Research. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63254-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63254-4_8

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