Readers are introduced to the perils of famine and drought and the lasting effects they have on Earth’s geography and human population. This captivating text brings forth how famine and drought happen, what measures are taken to avoid them, and how they have impacted different parts of the world. Additional information is provided through enlightening fact boxes and simple diagrams to enhance readers’ knowledge of these crucial subjects. Illuminating, full-color photographs are also included in this educational and age-appropriate text, which supports common science curriculum topics.

Examines drought and famine around the world, citing such famous examples as the Dust Bowl and Australia's "Big Dry."

In Famine, Drought, and Plagues, find out why droughts and plagues happen, the damage they cause, and how they and other disasters can lead to widespread famine. Book jacket.

The Constant Catastrophe: Malnutrition, Famines, and Drought deals with the 1972 drought, and emphasizes the underlying social conditions that are related to its effects. The book examines the relationship of drought as a meteorological event and the famine that results as a social event. The effects of natural catastrophes become transformed by social structures and political processes in many countries of the world, more than which can be attributable to the physical cause itself. A striking parallelism that emerges in the study is that climatological analysis implies reference to large scale space and time processes. Famine also occurs as anomalies within large-scale processes in society—famine changes nutritional levels in communities. The text proposes a theoretical framework for a methodologically-adequate diagnostic tool that can be used in studying the "factual events" in previous cases of major disasters due to climactic factors. Case studies include those that happened in the Sahel, Ethiopia, India, China, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. Among several recommendations, one which the book proposes in the management of the effects of drought, is to adopt an approach similar to that of the Red Cross. The book is suitable for economists, environmentalists, ecologists, and policy makers involved in crisis management, food production, and rural development.

Some 250,000 people died in the southern Somalia famine of 2011-12, which also displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more. Yet this crisis had been predicted nearly a year earlier. The harshest drought in Somalia's recent history coincided with a global spike in food prices, hitting this arid, import-dependent country hard. The policies of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group that controlled southern Somalia, exacerbated an already difficult situation, barring most humanitarian assistance, while donors counter-terrorism policies led to cuts and criminalized any aid falling into their hands. A major disaster resulted from the production and market failures precipitated by the drought and food price crisis, while the famine itself was the result of the failure to quickly respond to these events-and was thus largely human-made. This book analyses the famine: the trade-offs between competing policy priorities that led to it, the collective failure in response, and how those affected by it attempted to protect themselves and their livelihoods.It also examines the humanitarian response, including actors that had not previously been particularly visible in Somalia-from Turkey, the Middle East, and Islamic charities worldwide.

Famine & Drought: These devastating crises have affected some parts of the world for many years. The book explores the reasons why they develop, pointing out how human action, and sometimes failure to act, is often to blame. First-hand accounts from affected people, aid workers and emergency field teams help build a complete picture.