Meltdowns and Waves

This is the course blog for the Dickinson College summer mosaic “Meltdowns and Waves:  Responding to Disasters in the U.S. and Japan”

Course description:

Disasters arise frequently, but are there ways to identify post-disaster mitigation that over the long term will reduce communities’ vulnerability to disasters? It is this question, in relation to the comparison of Japanese and American societies, which this mosaic proposes to address during the summer of 2016. Through introductory lectures in Carlisle, you will understand the scientific causes of the Tōhoku earthquake, resulting tsunami and Fukushima nuclear accident, as well as those behind Hurricane Sandy and the Three Mile Island accident. By means of active community-based learning, especially by interviewing community members, you will understand what the social, economic, and environmental effects of these disasters were on their respective societies.