This handbook is for leaders who are faced with leading an individual or a church community through a traumatic event and its aftermath. It arises out of the Tragedy and Congregations Project which helps churches to respond in a healthy way to the impact of tragedies through training in good practice, careful reflection, and drawing on faith resources. *Part One examines the physical and mental impact of trauma, and offers a rapid response pastoral toolkit and guidance on appropriate continuing care. *Part Two offers pastoral and liturgical strategies for collective trauma, suggesting 'habits of the heart' that will build resilience. *Part Three reflects on the changing story of life and faith as meaning is made from traumatising events, and reflects on recovery.

COVID-19 and the Global Predators is much more than an analysis of the current exploitation of humanity under cover of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It discloses for the first time the actual blueprint and master plan that that was ten years in the making by global predators before the pandemic: a plan to reorganize the world in the name of public health.

Billionaires, government agencies, giant funds, and major industries collaborated years ahead of time to lay the groundwork for what would become Operation Warp Speed and the Great Reset in 2020. All this is disclosed, individuals and groups are named, and their plans for the future are documented. The book concludes with chapters on what America and the world must do in the coming weeks and months to save humanity's freedoms.

Many top medical and public health experts treating and examining COVID 19 agree this is the most comprehensive book about who and what is behind the draconian measures that are crushing individual freedoms and many of the societies and economies of the Western World including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. Three of these medical doctors have confirmed this in their introductions to the book: physicians Peter McCullough MD MPH, Vladimir "Zev" Zelenko MD and Elizabeth Lee Vliet MD. They are echoed by endorsements from Robert F Kennedy Jr. and Paul Alexander PhD.

This book thoroughly documents solid answers to these tragic questions about the global predators who are reaping enormous benefits from COVID-19 suffering including wealth, power and the destruction of America as an opposition to globalism.

Who are the "they"-these Global Predators? What are their motives and their plans for us? How can we defend against them?

Two years after Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Ricans are still reeling from its effects and aftereffects. Aftershocks collects poems, essays and photos from survivors of Hurricane Maria detailing their determination to persevere. The concept of "aftershocks" is used in the context of earthquakes to describe the jolts felt after the initial quake, but no disaster is a singular event. Aftershocks of Disaster examines the lasting effects of hurricane Maria, not just the effects of the wind or the rain, but delving into what followed: state failure, social abandonment, capitalization on human misery, and the collective trauma produced by the botched response.

When the forces that give our planet life exceed our ability to withstand them, they become disasters. Together they have shaped our cities and architecture, elevated leaders and toppled governments, influenced the way we think, feel, fight, unite and pray. The history of natural disasters is a history of ourselves.

The Big Ones investigates some of the most impactful natural disasters, and how their reverberations are still felt today. From a volcanic eruption in Pompeii challenging and reinforcing prevailing views of religion, through the California floods of 1862 and the limitations of memory, to what Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 tsunami can tell us about governance and globalisation. With temperatures rising around the world, natural disasters are striking with ever greater frequency.

More than just history or science, The Big Ones is a call to action. Natural hazards are inevitable; human catastrophes are not. With this energising and richly-researched book, Jones offers a look at our past, readying us to face down the Big Ones in our future.

Renowned Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben collects all of his fierce, passionate, and deeply personal interventions regarding the 2020 health emergency as it played out in Italy and across the world. Alongside and beyond accusations, these texts variously reflect upon the great transformation affecting Western democracies. In the name of biosecurity and health, the model of bourgeois democracy-together with its rights, parliaments, and constitutions-is everywhere surrendering to a new despotism where citizens seem to accept unprecedented limitations to their freedoms. This leads to the urgency of the volume's title: Where Are We Now? For how long will we accept living in a constantly extended state of exception, the end of which remains impossible to see?

Some of the most striking news stories from natural disasters are of animals tied to trees or cats swimming through murky flood waters. Although the issue of evacuating pets has gained more attention in recent disasters, there are still many failures throughout local and national systems of managing pets and accommodating animals in emergencies. All Creatures Safe and Sound is a comprehensive study of what goes wrong in our disaster response that shows how people can better manage pets in emergencies-from the household level to the large-scale, national level. Authors Sarah DeYoung and Ashley Farmer offer practical disaster preparedness tips while they address the social complexities that affect disaster management and animal rescue. They track the developments in the management of pets since Hurricane Katrina, including an analysis of the 2006 PETS Act, which dictates that animals should be included in hazard and disaster planning. Other chapters focus on policies in place for sheltering and evacuation, coalitions for animal welfare and the prevention of animal cruelty, organizational coordination, decision-making, preparedness, the role of social media in animal rescue and response, and how privilege and power shape disaster experiences and outcomes. Using data they collected from seven major recent American disasters, ranging from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Florence to the Camp, Tubbs, and Carr Fires in California and the Hawaii Lava Flow, the authors provide insights about the successes and failures of animal care. All Creatures Safe and Sound also outlines what still needs to change to best prepare for the safety and welfare of pets, livestock, and other companion animals in times of crisis.

'A virtuoso feat ... a book of panoramic breadth' New York Times Book Review 'A devastating analysis ... Wright is a master of knitting together complex narratives' The Observer Just as Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower became the defining account of our century's first devastating event, 9/11, so The Plague Year will become the defining account of the second. The story starts with the initial moments of Covid's appearance in Wuhan and ends with Joseph Biden's inauguration in an America ravaged by well over 400,000 deaths - a mortality already some ten times worse than US combat deaths in the entire Vietnam War. This is an anguished, furious memorial to a year in which all of America's great strengths - its scientific knowledge, its great civic and intellectual institutions, its spirit of voluntarism and community - were brought low, not by a terrifying new illness alone, but by political incompetence and cynicism on a scale for which there has been no precedent. With insight, sympathy, clarity and rage, The Plague Year allows the reader to see the unfolding of this great tragedy, talking with individuals on the front line, bringing together many moving and surprising stories and painting a devastating picture of a country literally and fatally misled. 'Maddening and sobering - as comprehensive an account of the first year of the pandemic as we've yet seen' Kirkus

Earth Observation for Flood Applications: Progress and Perspectives describes the latest scientific advances in Earth Observation. With recent floods around the world becoming ever more devastating, there is a need for better science enabling more effective solutions at a fast pace. This book aims at stretching from the current flood mapping to diverse real data so as to estimate the flood risk and damage. Earth Observation for Flood Applications: Progress and Perspectives includes three parts containing each a separate but complementary topic area under floods. Each chapter unfolds various applications, case studies, and illustrative graphics. In terms of flood mapping and monitoring, the usage of multi-sensor satellite data, web-services information, microwave remote sensing methods are discussed in depth. So, this book is a valuable resource for scientists, researchers, and students in the area of earth observation.

The contemporary world is characterized by the massive use of digital communication platforms and services that allow people to stay in touch with each other and their organizations. On the other hand, it is also a world with great challenges in terms of crisis, disaster, and emergency situations of various kinds. Thus, it is crucial to understand the role of digital platforms/services in the context of crisis, disaster, and emergency situations. Digital Services in Crisis, Disaster, and Emergency Situations presents recent studies on crisis, disaster, and emergency situations in which digital technologies are considered as a key mediator. Featuring multi- and interdisciplinary research findings, this comprehensive reference work highlights the relevance of society's digitization and its usefulness and contribution to the different phases and types of risk scenarios. Thus, the book investigates the design of digital services that are specifically developed for use in crisis situations and examines services such as online social networks that can be used for communication purposes in emergency events. Highlighting themes that include crisis management communication, risk monitoring, digital crisis intervention, and smartphone applications, this book is of particular use to governments, institutions, corporations, and professionals who deal with crisis, disaster, and emergency scenarios, as well as researchers, academicians, and students working in fields such as communications, multimedia, sociology, political science, and engineering.

In this age of uncertainty, there is the need for ideas that transcend the limitations of party political, or left/right thinking, in resolving the unprecedented problems of our time. Technological Civilisation is here presented as a focal point for a fresh perspective of both national and international issues. The tensions between America and China indicate the possibility of a new Cold War, and this would be disastrous for the planet in diverting attention away from the cooperation needed in attending to climate change and other threats to the environment. In the countries of the West, democracy as we know it is beginning to disintegrate. This is made evident through the collapse of voting figures and party memberships, as well as a spirit of disillusion. There are some topics which politicians are loathed to address, and in the sphere of the approaching environmental crisis, the population explosion is the most prominent. Leading scientists have clearly demonstrated, that even if all efforts are put towards reversing climate change through maximising renewable energy sources, unless population control is achieved on a sufficient level, all will be in vain. The population question is probably pushed ahead to a greater degree in this book than will be found elsewhere as a topic for public debate. In concentrating on Technological Civilisation, it is possible to discern the inter-connection of problems, and this leads to constructive proposals for the regeneration of democracy, the reform of the financial-industrial system, and the emergence of an upwardly mobile and free egalitarian society.

Where should they go? 70 million displaced refugees and asylum seekers with no passport, no money, and no worldly goods. In 380 BCE Plato wrote about the 'Ideal City,' but it wasn't until 1516 CE that Sir Thomas More invented the word, 'Utopia,' translated from Greek as 'good place,' that is in need of a new, contemporary interpretation. It is within the framework of utopia that the City of Refugees represents a place that transcends the fate of the refugee and the reason they were torn from their homeland and not given safe haven fleeing their country. It is a concept for a new city that welcomes these optimistic people looking for a place to be free from oppression. The University of Houston College of Architecture + Design with 135 students is proposing 4 cities on 4 continents as prototypes that represent a real utopia for housing the unprecedented migration of people moving across borders. This UN-sponsored, free economic zone for the 4 cities can be funded by small fractions of the defense budgets appropriated by the UN. The innovative cities create a platform for a new, multi-ethnic society based upon justice, tolerance, and economically viable with a net zero energy consumption within a sustainable environment. The new three-dimensional cities redefine the concept of streets by no longer needing cars creating a real utopia for those with no voice. The City of Refugees is a soft place to land that believes in the future.