Shirley Laska | Island Press

Shirley Laska

Shirley Laska is a professor of Sociology at the University of New Orleans and Director of the Center for Hazards, Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART).

Fleeing the effects of climate change

What will happen when thousands of people overwhelm communities? Climate change is mostly a “slow onset” phenomenon.  It does, however, generate fast-onset disasters/catastrophes as well.  Multiple years of drought slowly debilitate the ecosystem, threaten crops growth and healthy forests that absorb rain when it comes. Wildfires fed by dead/dying plant growth destroy communities rapidly, thus leading to soil poised to contribute to mud slides, etc., etc.  The rhythm of the unexperienced and destructive dynamics of climate change play themselves out.