Green Options

Vinay Gupta is a man with a novel approach to disaster relief and emergency shelters.

The Red Cross is interested. FEMA is interested.

Does OpenSource architecture and peer-to-peer emergency response hold the key to effectively meeting people’s needs in a disaster?

In an interview with TreeHugger, OpenSource designer Vinay Gupta had this to say:

“The idea that the U.S. might have to handle a city worth of refugees very suddenly shouldn’t be a strange thing to anybody who’s aware of the fact that there is some risk of terrorism on a mass scale. An organization like FEMA really has the responsibility to be able to evacuate a city worth of Americans in 24 hours if they have to be able to do so. That capability had not been developed so it couldn’t be deployed.”

Implementing Gupta’s emergency response plan and simple disaster shelters could develop that capability, working with FEMA, the Red Cross, and other local aid organizations.

Looking at the events surrounding the Katrina disaster, I’d say we really need to have a plan that works next time. The Hexayurt sounds like a phenomenal answer for sheltering displaced people, quickly. It’s a public domain project, OpenSource and ready to be taken to the next level.

In early 2008, Tsitsi Madavo, 67, was forced to abandon her village after a severe hailstorm hit Muzabarani, a village in central Zimbabwe, destroying her three huts, crops and livestock.

Every year, as in Muzarabani, environmental excesses around the world force millions of people to abandon their homes in search of places that are perceived to be safer. The impact of extreme weather will be felt more heavily among the poor and marginalized people.

Since time memorial, climate change processes have devastated human settlements, resulting in untold human suffering and vulnerability to poverty and disease.

As the world increasingly grapples with the phenomena of climate change, there are fears that it will lead to the internal or international displacement or refugee situations. There is scientific evidence that the number of people killed, injured or displaced as a result of unpredictable weather patterns has been on the rise in recent decades.