Disaster by Choice: How our actions turn natural hazards into catastrophes

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Disaster by Choice: How our actions turn natural hazards into catastrophes

Disaster by Choice: How our actions turn natural hazards into catastrophes

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S Sareen, A Smith, S Gantioler, J Balest, C M Brisbois, S Tomasi, B Sovacool, G A Torres Contreras, N Dellavalle & H Haarstad Stating that natural disasters do not exist because humans cause disasters seems insanely provocative. We witness nature ravaging our lives all the time: from a city underwater after a storm roars off the Atlantic to rows of smouldering houses after a wildfire to the dust rising from the ruins after an earthquake. choices and decisions. we put ourselves in harm's way; we fail to take measures which we know would prevent disasters, no matter what the environment does.

blame nature for the damage wrought, when in fact events such as earthquakes and storms are entirely commonplace environmental processes We feel the need to fight natural forces, to reclaim what we assume is ours, and to protect ourselves from what we perceive to be wrath from outside our Even if it's understandable that we feel the need to fight natural forces, Kelman argues, the result is an attitude which distracts us from the fact that the real causes of disasters are the choices we make as societies and individuals, and that the solution is to make better decisions.A balance between pushing for self-reliance, local accountability, and national and international management, is required in making the change. Following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, the author highlights camps set up for refugees on the nearest flatland which happened to be hardened lava until the nearby volcano erupted. The ‘displaced became re-displaced’ further complicating the migration settlement process already vulnerable contending with ongoing conflict — another example of vulnerability by choice with limited options. communities. This attitude distracts us from the real causes of disasters: humanity's decisions, as societies and as individuals. It stops us accepting the real solutions to disasters: making better decisions.

For the environmental events and processes we can deal with by reducing vulnerability, which are most of them, we are the real causes of disasters, not nature. Inadvertently or deliberately, in knowledge or in ignorance, disasters emerge through human choices, actions, behavior, and values. Closing this chasm between what we know and actually using this knowledge is not easy. Kelman proceeds with examples of recent wildfires in Australia and the North Sea flood of 1953 to drive home his point that we make ourselves vulnerable to disasters. This leads into what I thought were two somewhat muddled chapters on vulnerability. Disaster By Choice is an odd sort of book. Its very reasonable premise is that people choose to undergo disaster and they don’t have to. But the book is mainly a recounting of numerous disasters – fires, floods, volcanos, tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes, in small detail, following people who struggled, or survived, or died. An] engaging book filled with rich examples and details of specific historical events Kelmans succinct and generally lucid account of the state of knowledge within the field, will likely be useful to a wide range of readers."

Disaster by Choice: How our actions turn natural hazards into catastrophes

the conditions for disasters. Nature does not choose, but we do. It is our choice to avoid disasters - which Of course, however they manifest themselves there are myriad factors behind disasters and their consequences. They can arise from political processes dictating where and what we build, and from social circumstances which create and perpetuate poverty and discrimination. If you're more convinced by numbers, it's a phenomenon that lends itself to statistical analysis. The earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 was over a hundred times less powerful than the one that shook Japan in 2011 and its resulting tsunami, for example, yet the death toll was more than ten times greater. The difference lay in the vulnerability of the two communities. How could we withstand the 250 mile per hour winds of a tornado, faster than Japan's bullet trains, or the 2,200ºF temperature of lava, hotter than many potters' kilns? How would we feel if an "expert" lectured to us that it was not nature's fault, as we sifted through the few photos salvaged from the pile of debris that was once our home and our life? An earthquake shatters Haiti and a hurricane slices through Texas. We hear that nature runs rampant, seeking to destroy us through these 'natural disasters'. Science recounts a different story, however: disasters are not the consequence of natural causes; they are the consequence of human choices and decisions. we put ourselves in harm's way; we fail to take measures which we know would prevent disasters, no matter what the environment does. This is an excellent little book that crystallises ideas about the influence and impact of human actions on natural catastrophes into a thoughtful and informative narrative, concluding – and rightly so – that there is no such thing as a natural disaster. A must-read book."

This perfectly crafted and well written book [...] is long overdue, much needed and greatly welcomed." Others prefer to work on smaller scales and less ambitious steps. They demonstrate more direct, more tangible, and more immediate positive impacts, which they hope, in the end, might scale up to wider, deeper changes. Examples are managing forests to permit small wildfires and retrofitting properties to withstand earthquakes, all while changing our behaviour so that we can withstand wildfires and earthquakes without harm. The New York National Guard loads cars with meals to distribute to those in quarantine due to COVID-19. (Credit: The National Guard) This can be both hard to accept, and hard to unravel. A complex of factors shape disasters. They arise from the political processes dictating where and what we build, and from social circumstances which create and perpetuate poverty and discrimination. They develop from the social preference to blame nature for the damage wrought, when in fact events such as earthquakes and storms are entirely commonplace environmental processes We feel the need to fight natural forces, to reclaim what we assume is ours, and to protect ourselves from what we perceive to be wrath from outside our communities. This attitude distracts us from the real causes of disasters: humanity's decisions, as societies and as individuals. It stops us accepting the real solutions to disasters: making better decisions.

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I take the view of turning information and awareness of nature’s hazards to harness change, preparing our built and living environments and acting with providence to vulnerability. Keen not only to respond when hazard turns to disaster, but to also prepare, plan, and be prudent. Which speaks to the quote on the book cover ‘how our actions turn natural hazards into catastrophes’.



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