"A new study from the University of Kansas found residents of one Seoul, South Korea, neighborhood have grown so accustomed to living through extreme climate events they have developed a "disaster subculture" ... Residents regularly expressed a sort of indifference to extreme heat and climate change, stating they had no options or even that "every day is a disaster."
""This research focused on how people make meaning of extreme weather. The findings revealed they developed a 'disaster subculture,'" Kang said. "When they experience this, it causes them to reflect a sense of normalcy. One of the main things I found was even though it's been widely reported these living conditions can be a living hell, people told me, 'It is what it is.' I was really struck by that."" #disasterlife#climate#ExtremeWeather
Over the past few years, there have been several close fire incidents.
The town of Medical Lake, just 3 miles from downtown Spokane, burned to the ground.
There have been around 4 other fires within 5 miles of spokane in the last 3 years.
I've modeled outcomes in my head - if a fire breaks out on the south side of the Spokane river, could it jump the banks to the residential areas north of downtown?
@ai6yr
Speaking from personal experience, the emotional toll of engaging with every single near-catastrophe as a very real and possible emergency, is absolutely unsustainable. The stress is massive.
In circumstances of high ongoing stress with little to no personal agency or power to change circumstances, the psyche will do what it always does: cope with the ongoing stress by putting it firmly in the cognitive category of "outside my control"
[Cont]
@ai6yr
Context for people unfamiliar with wildfires: under severe weather conditions (hot, dry, and windy) it's possible for fires to spread at tens of miles per hour.
Which is to say, a fire could go from being "far outside of town" to "burning down houses on the edge of town" within half an hour.
Imagine living with this as your reality. You'd either learn to tune it out, or be a nervous wreck.
@katanova Or, you ignore it most of the year except when it's a Red Flag warning... which is what I do. Prepare, pay attention. Don't worry when it's not extreme wildfire conditions.
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