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Pödelwitz got future

JonnyGruensch
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Pödelwitz is an activist initiative  in the central german coal district, which is located in a village which was supposed to be evacuated for a planned expansion of a neighboring coal mine. After successfully resisting this expansion, the activists now promote social-ecological transformation in the village and the wider region. I will collaborate with them as part of my project in C-urge to study the role of justice in such transformations. Thereby we hope to arrive at an understanding of justice that is not opposed to urgent societal transformation in light of climate change, but a means of achieving this.

Seismic St. Louis

Emily Sekine

I'm interested in better understanding the ongoing geological processes that shape St. Louis and the Mississippi Valley region. So far, I've been looking into the history of seismicity in the region, focusing on the fascinating but little known history of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 -- the most devastating earthquakes to have hit the US east of the Rockies. I've also been exploring how St. Louis and surrounding areas are dealing with the possibility of another earthquake occurring in the future. According to one article I read, one of the biggest uncertainties is what would happen to the heavily engineered Mississippi River in the case of another major tremblor. The shaking could break the levees, flooding wide areas along the river and creating cascading effects. The flow of the river might also reverse completely, as occurred during the New Madrid earthquakes.

On these possibilities and the lack of scientific consensus surrounding intraplate seismicity in this zone, see this article in The Atlantic.

On current efforts to create earthquake hazard maps in St. Louis, see this overview on the US Geological Survey site.

For a deeper dive into the history of the New Madrid earthquakes, see this book by historian of science Conevery Bolton Valencius. 

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harrison.leinweber

This program is viewed as a novelty to the public, as it is the first college of its kind to offer a degree in homeland security and emergency preparedness. A number view it as a step in the right direction and an innovation. The program does not appear to have been around for long enough to yeild graduates, so those results are still unkown.

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harrison.leinweber

this report has spread to a number of academic institutions and their websites. This report seems to be relatively old, so I was unable to find any news reports that cited it. It appears that there are a number of other articles related to this topic; however, I was unable to find any direct connections between them and this report.

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harrison.leinweber

By examining the bibliography, it appears that this report was produced after the author conducted a great deal of research including interviewing other experts in the field and reading many other texts on the subject. One could also gather that the author examined publications by agencies relevant to the topic such as theIAEA and the US NRC.

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harrison.leinweber

Scott Knowles is the Head of the Department of History at Drexel University in Pennsylvania. He specializes in the history of technology, disaster, and public policy. He has a number of other publications that are relevant to the DSTS Network including a book, The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America, and co-authored "Critical Studies in Risk and Disaster, and a volume on the Fukushima disasters. He is not professionally situated among emergency responders; however, he does conduct research on the subject.

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harrison.leinweber

This article discusses emergency response in the historical incidents and described why emergency responders had difficulty rescuing victims and why there were so many fatalities. The article did not, however, discuss the details of the emergency response, it focused much more on how the situation happened and the political and social aftermath.

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harrison.leinweber

This question is a little difficult to answer due to the lack of bibliography; however, one can infer that the author conducted interviews or found interviews which were conducted by third parties as a portion of his research. The author also appears to have researched laws in France and the rest of the European Union.