Jay Mwamba's "Crash of the Buffalo" is a compelling account of the 1993 plane crash that wiped out Zambia's national soccer team, and the inspiring story of the nation’s remarkable comeback. The book details the tragedy, its aftermath, and the incredible resilience and determination of a nation to rebuild and honor the memories of its fallen heroes. Zambia was on the cusp of qualifying for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. when the DHC-5D Buffalo military transport carrying the team crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 30 people on board. The nation was devastated, but the government announced that the team would continue with its quest to qualify for both the World Cup and the African Cup of Nations. A new squad was built around star player Kalusha Bwalya, who’d escaped the crash. The squad underwent an intensive six-week training program in Denmark under a young coach named Roald Poulsen. Rebuilt Zambia went on to defeat Morocco in its first game 10 weeks after the crash. And 11 months later, they stormed into the final of the 1994 African Cup of Nations.

Through detailed analysis of films such as The Towering Inferno, Independence Day, Titanic and The Day After Tomorrow, this book looks at the ways in which disaster movies can be read in relation to both contextual considerations and the increasing commercial demands of contemporary Hollywood. Featuring new material on cinematic representations of disaster in the wake of 9/11 and how we might regard disaster movies in light of recent natural disasters, the volume explores the continual reworking of this previously undervalued genre.

Inside view of how and why militaries/intelligence agencies plan for environmental disasters, for practitioners, policymakers and scholars.

Storms, floods, fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other disasters seem not only more frequent but also closer to home. As the world faces this onslaught, we have placed our faith in “sustainable development,” which promises that we can survive and even thrive in the face of climate change and other risks. Yet while claiming to “go green,” we have instead created new risks, continued to degrade nature, and failed to halt global warming. Unnatural Disasters offers a new perspective on our most pressing environmental and social challenges, revealing the gaps between abstract concepts like sustainability, resilience, and innovation and the real-world experiences of people living at risk. Gonzalo Lizarralde explains how the causes of disasters are not natural but all too human: inequality, segregation, marginalization, colonialism, neoliberalism, racism, and unrestrained capitalism. He tells the stories of Latin American migrants, Haitian earthquake survivors, Canadian climate activists, African slum dwellers, and other people resisting social and environmental injustices around the world. Lizarralde shows that most reconstruction and risk-reduction efforts exacerbate social inequalities. Some responses do produce meaningful changes, but they are rarely the ones powerful leaders have in mind. This book reveals how disasters have become both the causes and consequences of today’s most urgent challenges and proposes achievable solutions to save a planet at risk, emphasizing the power citizens hold to change the current state of affairs.