Energy justice, environmental racism, and the political ecology (and sociology) of natural disasters

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Benjamin Sovacool

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Jul 16, 2020, 10:41:52 AM7/16/20

Dear all,

Many of us are already all too aware that the unfolding Covid-19 pandemic and its impacts are not being felt equally, but are having disproportionate consequences for some of the world’s most poor and vulnerable groups. This has unfortunately become a common trend in disasters, whether they are human made or naturally occurring (or a mix of both), and with our responses to them.

A new study of ours, published this week, highlights these themes in the journal Environmental Sociology:

Social media and disasters: Human security, environmental racism, and crisis communication in Hurricane Irma response

ABSTRACT: Social media have been widely recognized as critical communication channel in disaster situations. However, there is limited empirical investigation on how the intersecting issues of social order, environmental impacts, and crisis communication unfold from the perspective of a social media user. This study examines 60,449 tweets to and from the news media in Florida during and immediately after Hurricane Irma in September, 2017. Based on a critical review of the literature coupled with an eight-category coding scheme (including second-hand reporting, reporting on self-experience, requesting help, coordinating relief efforts, and expressing well wishes), the article assesses the content and timing of tweets before, during, and after the storm. It finds that thematically, twitter coverage not only covers the storm itself but pressing social issues such as looting, price gouging, the privileging of elites in rebuilding efforts, environmental vulnerability, and abandoning pets. Temporally, the volume of different tweets peaked and dropped at different stages; for example, tweets about personal experience peaked when the hurricane hit the ground while requests for help peaked in the days after the hurricane. The study allows for a better understanding of the sociological, environmental, and even social justice impacts and related disaster response through the use of social media.

Citation: Sovacool, BK, X Xu, G Zarazua de Rubens, and C Chen. “Social media and disasters: Human security, environmental racism, and crisis communication in Hurricane Irma response,” Environmental Sociology 6(3) (Fall, 2020), pp. 291-306.

A special thanks to Dr. Chien-fei Chen for leading the very innovative form of social media data collection.

The study builds on earlier work of ours showing the energy justice, social justice, elitist and political ecology elements of disasters and our responses to them, published in:

Sovacool, BK. “Don’t let disaster recovery perpetuate injustice,” Nature 549 (September 28, 2017), p. 433.

Sovacool, BK, M Tan-Mullins, and W Abrahamse. “Bloated bodies and broken bricks: Power, ecology, and inequality in the political economy of natural disaster recovery,” World Development 110 (October, 2018), pp. 243-255.

Sovacool, BK, L Baker, M Martiskainen, and A Hook. “Processes of elite power and low-carbon pathways: Experimentation, financialisation, and dispossession,” Global Environmental Change 59 (November, 2019), 101985, pp. 1-14.

Anybody wanting copies of any of these works need only ask. And please, build on this research to create more equitable, and accountable, post-disaster interventions going forward.

Sincerely,

________________________

Benjamin K. Sovacool, Ph.D FAcSS
Professor of Energy Policy

Director of the Sussex Energy Group

Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU)

University of Sussex Business School

Jubilee Building, Room 367

Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9SL

United Kingdom

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/373957

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/

UK: 01273 877128