Control of Nature Paper Assignment #2: Indian Ocean tsunami

Due Monday, February 26

Write a ~3 page paper on one of the following questions:

1) Compare and contrast the relief and recovery efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami to those after Hurricane Katrina. (The UK newspaper The Guardian has a nice collection of links to stories about the relief efforts available on the web.) What similar problems were encountered? How was the situation different? Are the differences the results of differences in the nature of the disaster, or differences in the cultures, politics, economics, or logistics of dealing with an international crisis compared to a crisis within the United States?

2) What responsibilities do you think the United States and/or other industrialized countries have in preventing and recovering from tsunami disasters in the Indian Ocean? Should a tsunami warning system be developed? Do you think it would have been effective if it had been in place? Are there other things that could (or should) be done to help decrease the number of deaths and the amount of damage experienced? What about the recovery -- what could (or should) people from around the world do for places such as those described in the Guardian reports?

In either case, make sure you defend all your arguments, and cite appropriate references (including the textbook and web sources) when you use information from sources other than your own mind.

The grading criteria for the paper is included in the course syllabus.