Multiple Disasters Means Stretched Resources & Donor Fatigue

Something that modern civilization has counted upon during times of crisis is outside help from those in a better situation. News of disaster travels around the region, sometimes whole areas of the world, and people donate time and money to assist those who are in a bad way.

The process of Decline is hastened by climate change because of the limits that are reached as resources are strained to the breaking as disasters pile up.

Here is an NPR article about this very process unfolding this very year:

www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/09/29/554291950/what-the-pileup-of-u-s-disasters-means-for-the-world

Listing donations during every subsequent disaster this year showing a marked decline, the article goes on to say:

“All this has happened as the world was already grappling with some of the largest humanitarian crises since World War II: 20 million people at risk of dying from starvation and disease due to conflicts and drought in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

So within the U.S. government it’s not just exclusively domestic agencies like FEMA that are in all-hands-on-deck mode right now. At the CDC, where Talley works for a branch that focuses on overseas emergencies, “we have staff around the world responding.”

Similarly, USAID, the agency that delivers U.S. assistance to poor countries, has deployed six separate disaster response teams — which can consist of as many as several dozen staffers — including teams to help displaced people from Syria and Iraq.

“This is only the second time that we’ve had six teams mobilized at once,” notes Alex Mahoney, a top official with the agency’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, or OFDA.

The last time was during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. “So yes, it’s unusual,” he says.“

It’s well worth reading, and explains that agencies all over the world that rely on U.S. support– including the U.S.!– are stretched to their limits and beyond. Donations are dropping in a process that is called “donation fatigue” due to both private parties and governmental organizations using their volunteers and resources until no more of either is left, and replacements are slow to arrive.

It appears that any more disasters after this pile up may well face the unthinkable: little to no help at all.

The timing appears to be part of the problem with the lack of help for Puerto Rico, for instance. Or the devastating fires in California…. we are at the point where both funds and active participants are just about OUT of commission.

I believe that climate change means more years will be like this last one and that soon– maybe within a decade– it may well be that local disasters will be met with local help and not much more than that, and many devastating disaster survivors will find they are on their own. This would mean that the collapse of modern civilization may take far less time than typical Declines of previous eras. The mentality of generosity to strangers could shift to that of battening down the hatches for your own area and people.

We all should hope not. The longer we can maintain infrastructures and constant contact around the world, the easier the descent will be, ultimately.