Glacier Science and Technology in the Central Andes: The Quest to Control Natural Disasters and Climate Change, 1941-2008

安第斯山脉中部的冰川科学与技术：控制自然灾害和气候变化的探索，1941-2008

• 批准号: 0822983
• 负责人: Mark Carey
• 金额: $ 17.53万
• 依托单位: Washington and Lee University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0822983&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Glacier; Science; Technology; Central; Andes

The project focuses on the Peruvian Andes, where nearly 30,000 people have died since 1941 from glacier disasters caused by climate change. Hundreds of scientists and engineers in several state agencies have been working since the 1940s to closely monitor over 600 glaciers and to drain and dam dozens of dangerous Andean glacial lakes. The proposed research will study the historical relationships among science, engineering, technology, and society in this context of global climate change and persistent environmental hazards. Proposed research focuses on three areas: (1) the capacity for the increasingly-technical scientific images used in glaciology since the 1940s to reduce local vulnerability to natural disasters; (2) the conflicts and negotiations involved in the historical maintenance of indigenous science and disaster mitigation strategies; and (3) a comparative and collaborative historical study of Peruvian and Swiss glacier control tactics. The project merges the History of Science, Engineering, and Technology with Environmental History by analyzing how socio-cultural contexts affected the historical development of glacier sciences and disaster engineering and technologies; how disaster prevention science, engineering projects, and technologies affected different social groups; and how experts historically mediated both state-society and human-nature interactions. By analyzing distinct local, scientific, and state agendas in the post-colonial Peruvian Andes, the research tests whether projects that appeared to be failures for experts could simultaneously be victories for locals. The project's working hypothesis is that the increased application of Western science, engineering, and technology by experts in the Andes only partially reduced local's vulnerability to glacier hazards. Part of the explanation for this "failure" lies in the political and socio-cultural contexts in which people engage experts and their technologies. For many Andean residents, increased vulnerability to glacier disasters was preferable to expanded state control over their communities and lives.This study will generate broader understandings of the growing influence of scientists and engineers in modern societies, particularly expert-local interactions through time and competing attempts to represent and manage the natural world. Most importantly, it promises to give historical depth to our understanding of human responses to climate change and natural disasters, and these are subjects of enormous contemporary interest. These broader impacts will be achieved through the wide dissemination of research findings in the US, Peru, and Europe.

该项目的重点是秘鲁的安第斯山脉，自1941年以来，已有近3万人死于气候变化造成的冰川灾害。自20世纪40年代以来，几个国家机构的数百名科学家和工程师一直在密切监测600多个冰川，并对数十个危险的安第斯冰川湖进行排水和筑坝。拟议的研究将研究在全球气候变化和持续环境危害的背景下，科学，工程，技术和社会之间的历史关系。建议的研究集中在三个领域：（1）自20世纪40年代以来，冰川学中使用的越来越多的技术科学图像的能力，以减少当地对自然灾害的脆弱性;（2）土著科学和减灾战略的历史维护所涉及的冲突和谈判;（3）秘鲁和瑞士冰川控制策略的比较和合作历史研究。该项目通过分析社会文化背景如何影响冰川科学和灾害工程和技术的历史发展，将科学，工程和技术的历史与环境史相结合;防灾科学，工程项目和技术如何影响不同的社会群体;以及专家如何在历史上调解国家-社会和人与自然的互动。通过分析后殖民时期秘鲁安第斯山脉不同的地方、科学和国家议程，这项研究测试了在专家看来失败的项目是否同时也是当地人的胜利。该项目的工作假设是，安第斯山脉专家越来越多地应用西方科学、工程和技术，只是部分地减少了当地对冰川灾害的脆弱性。这种“失败”的部分原因在于人们与专家及其技术接触的政治和社会文化背景。对许多安第斯居民来说，更容易受到冰川灾害的影响比扩大国家对其社区和生活的控制要好，这项研究将使人们更广泛地了解科学家和工程师在现代社会中日益增长的影响力，特别是专家与当地人随着时间的推移的互动以及代表和管理自然世界的竞争性尝试。最重要的是，它有望使我们对人类对气候变化和自然灾害的反应有更深的历史理解，而这些都是当代人们非常感兴趣的主题。这些更广泛的影响将通过在美国、秘鲁和欧洲广泛传播研究成果来实现。