The Constant Catastrophe
Malnutrition, Famines and Drought
- 1st Edition - November 30, 1981
- Imprint: Pergamon
- Authors: Rolando V. Garcia, José C. Escudero
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 1 - 7 3 8 5 - 6
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 1 - 8 9 6 6 - 6
The Constant Catastrophe: Malnutrition, Famines, and Drought deals with the 1972 drought, and emphasizes the underlying social conditions that are related to its effects. The book… Read more
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Request a sales quoteThe Constant Catastrophe: Malnutrition, Famines, and Drought deals with the 1972 drought, and emphasizes the underlying social conditions that are related to its effects. The book examines the relationship of drought as a meteorological event and the famine that results as a social event. The effects of natural catastrophes become transformed by social structures and political processes in many countries of the world, more than which can be attributable to the physical cause itself. A striking parallelism that emerges in the study is that climatological analysis implies reference to large scale space and time processes. Famine also occurs as anomalies within large-scale processes in society—famine changes nutritional levels in communities. The text proposes a theoretical framework for a methodologically-adequate diagnostic tool that can be used in studying the "factual events" in previous cases of major disasters due to climactic factors. Case studies include those that happened in the Sahel, Ethiopia, India, China, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. Among several recommendations, one which the book proposes in the management of the effects of drought, is to adopt an approach similar to that of the Red Cross. The book is suitable for economists, environmentalists, ecologists, and policy makers involved in crisis management, food production, and rural development.
Introduction
Part One: The Background
Chapter 1 The Impact of Drought on Nutrition
Chapter 2 Human Needs of Food
Annex 1: European Diets vs Traditional Foods
Annex 2: Early Cognitive Development and Malnutrition
Chapter 3 The Magnitude and Distribution of Human Malnutrition
Chapter 4 The Problem of Measuring Malnutrition
Chapter 5 A Structural Approach for Diagnosing the Impact of Climatic Anomalies
Chapter 6 The Population-Resources Balance
Annex 1: The Neo-Malthusian Argument and Nutritional Policies
Chapter 7 Responses to Drought-Induced National Disasters
Part Two: Case Studies
Chapter 8 The Sahel and Ethiopia
Annex 1: Health Levels in the Sahel and Incidence of the 1972 Drought
Annex 2: The Ethiopian Famines of the 1970's: Living Conditions in Ethiopia
Chapter 9 Counterpoint One: India and China
Annex 1: Impact of Drought on Nutrition and Health Status of the Population of India
Annex 2: Ending Famines in China
Chapter 10 Counterpoint Two: Food Distribution Policies in China and the United Kingdom
Annex 1: Food Rationing in the United Kingdom during World War II
Annex 2: The Distribution of Food in Present Day China
Chapter 11 A General Panorama of Malnutrition in Latin America
Annex 1: Malnutrition in Argentina
Annex 2: Malnutrition in Brazil
Chapter 12 Some Suggestions for Action
Index
- Edition: 1
- Published: November 30, 1981
- No. of pages (eBook): 214
- Imprint: Pergamon
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9781483173856
- eBook ISBN: 9781483189666
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