Talk at the Library: What Japan’s Past Disasters Can Teach Us About the Age of Climate Change
A Conversation with Historian and Asia21 Fellow Jonas Rüegg
The world watched in disbelief when a giant tsunami overran the coasts of Northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, and flooded the reactors of Fukushima Daiichi. Within minutes of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, waves towering up to 14 meters swept across fields and towns, flooding the plant built right on the shoreline in one of the most seismically active zones on earth. In the aftermath of the triple disaster – an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown – a broader awareness emerged that ‘natural’ disasters are never simply ‘natural,’ but deeply intertwined with human activities.
How can Japan’s long history of coping with disaster help understand the challenges of living in a world of shifting environmental risks? How will climate change reshape our landscapes and economies? And why is a multi-disciplinary approach that puts scientific inquiry in a conversation with the humanities, essential for navigating today’s environmental challenges?
Join us for a Talk at the Library with Jonas Rüegg, historian of Japan, East Asia, and the Pacific, as we explore historical disasters in Japan and discuss critical perspectives on how scenarios of changing environmental risks change the way we interpret memories from the past.
(This event is for Asia Society Members only.)
Event Video Posted on Youtube by the Asia Society of Switzerland:
