Americans are displaying evidence of what appears to be disaster fatigue. The percentage of people contributing to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan - and the amount of money raised for relief for one of the largest storms in recorded history - is paltry in comparison with recent crises.
It is not as if location matters: Americans have raised far more for places further away and more obscure. But it may be that the steady drumbeat of natural disasters has just worn people out. It could also be that their own financial worries have dulled the instinct to give though the response to crises in Japan and to tornado victims in the US has elicited stronger donations.
The larger question, however, is whether the impact that climate change is reported to have on the frequency and severity of these cataclysms has reduced both the 'novelty' if such a word can be used as well as the sympathy that the victims evoke. If so, this may have significant policy implications for how governments and the private sector deal with the recovery from such events in the future. The public has risen to the occasion time and again, but it may be that just as these storms are becoming more of a human and economic problem, people's desire to help is diminishing. That has moral and and financial implications for a future in which these occurences may become far more common than we would like - or can afford. JL
Eleanor Goldberg reports in the Huffington Post:
It was one of the strongest storms in world history, but even so, Americans aren’t that interested in Typhoon Haiyan, a new study shows.
After surveying 1,013 adults a week after the storm hit, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that Americans’ engagement with the news and in donating to the relief effort is trailing behind other recent natural disasters.
According to the poll, 14 percent of Americans said they’ve made a donation to charities working in the Philippines and 17 percent said they plan on doing so. In the same period after the massive earthquake hit Haiti, 18 percent of Americans said they contributed and 30 percent said they planned on donating.
While contributions historically tend to pick up in the weeks following a disaster, the actual difference in dollars and cents has already varied vastly between these two crises in particular.
Within 10 days of the Haiti earthquake in 2010, Americans donated more than $300 million to relief efforts, NPR reported.
Part of what helped smash fundraising records was the nascent text-donation technology, which had not previously been available in the wake of a crisis.
In the week following Typhoon Haiyan, initial numbers showed that Americans donated more than $33 million, CNN Money reported.
But it’s not just the actual monetary donations that are flagging. Americans don’t appear all that interested in even following the unfolding tragedy, which has already claimed more than 5,000 lives.
According to Pew, 60 percent of Americans were following the Haiti earthquake aftermath “very closely” and 55 percent of Americans did the same after the Japan Tsunami.
Just 32 percent of Americans have been engaged with the news about the typhoon, the study found.
The most closely followed story the week the storm hit was the ongoing rollout of the 2010 Affordable Care Act; the typhoon came in second.
Pew didn’t reveal why Americans have been less engaged with Typhoon Haiyan, but experts believe it may mostly be related to the timing of the storm.
Sandra Miniutti, vice president, marketing and CFO of watchdog Charity Navigator, told The Huffington Post that Americans have likely been preoccupied with a number of other issues.
For one, the Midwest tornadoes cut news coverage of the typhoon short and the approaching holidays could be making people less inclined to part with their money.
Experts estimate that the cost of rebuilding the devastated parts of the Philippines could reach $5.8 billion, Reuters reported.
While relief agencies initially faced major obstacles in delivering aid to those who needed it most, authorities say that the “worst is over.”
"We have overcome the most difficult part," Eduardo del Rosario, civil defense chief, told the AP on Friday. "In the first week we can say we were in the emergency room ... this second week we are now in the ICU, still critical but stabilized."
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