When you think of the Asia-Pacific region, a vision of tropical islands, mai tais, sunshine, trade winds, crashing surf and palm trees comes to mind, doesn’t it?
Asia-Pacific, or in military terms, the Pacific Area of Responsibility, is the largest geographically military area of responsibility in the world. In the center of this region lies the Hawaiian Islands; these tropical islands have become my home. I have grown to know this region well, travelling, studying, and working throughout it for the past 6 years. Unfortunately, this region of the world is also a target for countless natural disasters. As we discuss the environment, the topic of sustainability is one that resonates closely to my work.
R3ADY Asia-Pacific is an organization that was initially founded in 2011 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit as a vision of the Asia-Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (APDR3) Network in response to the natural disasters that were “outstripping the capacity of governments”. (R3ADY, 2015) As one of the original members, I can attest that the vision of our founding members was to bring together and collaborate with members of the military, academia, government, business, philanthropy, Centers of Disease Control, Army Corps of Engineers, Agriculture, private business, civil society and leaders of nations throughout the Pacific to bridge gaps, promote innovation, and develop solutions in the areas of sustainability, resiliency, and risk reduction. The goal of the program was to pre-emptively target critical areas of need to build resilient nations, promote economies, and reduce the risk of disaster through innovative and strategic partnerships throughout the Pacific.
In recent years the Asia-Pacific has seemingly become a target for some of the most catastrophic disasters in history.
Whether it’s the Philippines, which recently experienced the strongest storm recorded, or Japan, which was devastated by the tsunami and earthquake in 2011 – the tragedies affecting these countries serve as a call to risk-prone countries throughout Asia and the Pacific to build and vigilantly maintain resilience to catastrophes.” (Infographic, 2013) Captured in this graphic below the death tolls demonstrate the harsh realities of this fact. (Infographic, 2013)
How does this relate to applied social psychology? Resource dilemmas is a topic that comes to mind. As we examine the issues of sustainability throughout the Pacific we must find the balance between self-interest and the availability of our natural resources such as fish, water, land space. It is equally important to discuss social design in this region. Hawaii has transitioned, with limited energy resources, to promoting solar energy providing significant tax breaks to individuals opting for solar panels to be installed in their homes. In the past few years our beautiful horizon has been polluted with wind mills, although an eye sore, these wind mills are helping us compensate for the low energy supplies to help sustain the growing population on the island while additionally giving people hope of driving down our astronomical energy costs. With such limited space on the islands throughout the Pacific trash is yet another growing concern that has large-scale effects on our environment. Currently trash is stacked on barges sitting in our harbors with no where to go. The land fill is overflowing without any alternate solution. Something needs to be done to address this resource dilemma. Strategies must be devised to promote pro-environment behavior throughout the Pacific. We need to examine ways in which we can educate, shape, and influence cultures and communities throughout the region to implement change in order to address these resource dilemmas.
As we lean forward into the future it is critical that we address the issues of sustainability, resiliency, and risk reduction. We need to gain a better understanding of what is occurring in nature to trigger disasters of such colossal magnitudes. Much as R3ADY is aimed at bridging information and knowledge gaps through innovation and experimentation, we need more individuals with diverse and expansive backgrounds to join the party. We need solutions to address the hard questions on how to do this better, more effectively and efficiently. The Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) is a “leaning forward” agency that has tackled the challenge of warning and reporting, knowing a disaster is about to strike and when to adequately prepare is a huge piece to this puzzle, but how effective is this tool if only a small percentage have access to it? How do we expand this capability throughout other regions?
We must come together with a common goal and mission to invoke change to a region of the world that is in desperate need. disasters are overlooked or carry little weight if they are not in our purview, this attitude needs to be altered, we need to start focusing on environmental concerns as a global issue, not just when they touch our individual “worlds”.
Citations:
R3ADY Asia-Pacific. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://r3ady.org/
Infographic: Recent Significant Disasters in the Asia and Pacific Region. (2013, December 26). Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://reliefweb.int/report/world/infographic-recent-significant-disasters-asia-and-pacific-region
New co-ordinated approach for Pacific disaster & climate concerns | Pacific Beat. (2014, June 4). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/new-coordinated-approach-for-pacific-disaster-climate-concerns/1321490
Pacific Disaster Center. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://www.pdc.org/
Reducing Vulnerability Disasters and Conflict. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2015, from http://www.unep.org/roap/Activities/DisastersandConflicts/tabid/6056/Default.aspx