Science Café: To make matters worse
Drought, floods, pandemics, famine... Natural disasters seem to be occurring more frequently, and more intense than ever. But is that also true?
Historians always find a disaster in history that was even greater and more devastating than the one we already knew about. In this lecture, Tim Soens delves into the tragic but also fascinating history of natural disasters. From the Great Medieval Famine (1315-1317) and the Lisbon Earthquake (1755) to river floods — in 1825 and 1926 — and the 1953 flood, closer to home.
He focuses on vulnerability to natural disasters. Are we less vulnerable to disasters now than before, or not? His message is short but strong: natural disasters occurred when humans were no longer able to live with nature extremes.
Tim Soens (1977) is professor of ecological and medieval history at the Center for Urban History at the University of Antwerp. His research focuses on the long-term evolution of the interaction between man and nature in urbanized societies, between the late Middle Ages and the nineteenth century.
Special attention is paid to the history of natural disasters, river and coastal areas, urban agriculture and the ecological interaction between the city and the countryside. He is spokesperson for GIstorical Antwerp — the historic GIS expertise center at UAntwerp — and EPIBEL — a consortium that studies the history of pandemics and inequality in Belgium.
