I concur with Guy Risdon; in this subject area we have chosen, there are
more important things to be doing.
However (!) I am asked for my reasons for not accepting "disasterologist".
First, it is unwieldy lingistics.
Second, there are more people involved in the subject than have the time
and inclination to participate in the network - they are out in the field,
no doubt. I am content, with most of them, to be a (parent discipline:
sociologist; economist; anthropologist; nuritionist; hydraulogist;
meteorologist; engineer.......) working in disasters/disaster
reduction/vulnerability/ disaster management.........etc - and without
another name.
Third, disasters themselves know no boundaries. They impail and impinge on
all and everything - and all and everything is reflected in the nature of
disasters. Disasters are contextural. It is natural therefore for all and
everything to contribute to the disasters/hazards subject area,
independently, and from their own locational and cultural viewpoints. But
it seems to me, by giving ourselves a new name, we would be suggesting a
separation from everything else, whereas it is integration and
modification of everything else that we should be seeking from wherever we
are and from within whatever parent discipline or managerial sector we may
belong.
James Lewis
Architect RIBA
Visiting Fellow in Development Studies, University of Bath
Consultant in Environment and Human Settlements
(Author: Development in Disaster-prone Places: Studies in Vulnerability).
At 10:03 09/07/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>As we all know, besides the geologist, there are many specialists that make
>up the geosciences. Some of these will devote a certain amount of their time
>studying interesting but sometimes deadly natural phenomena that can turn
>into natural hazards or disasters (eg: volcanologists & volcanoes,
>seismologists & earthquakes, glaciologists & glaciers hydrologists & floods
>(or drought), meteorologists & hurricanes, tornadoes, electrical storms,
>etc.).
>
>A few years ago, I ran across a term (maybe while talking to a geologist)
for
>a person who spent practically all of his/her time studying ALL of these
>natural disasters without being limited to just one aspect. What is this
>person called please?
>
>TIA,
>Bruce Winningham
>
>
James Lewis
Architect RIBA
Datum International
101 High Street
Marshfield
nr Chippenham Wiltshire
SN14 8LT
United Kingdom
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fax : +44 (0)1225 892 092
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