10.14.2005
"Natural" Disasters
So lately I've been feeling like the world is coming to an end every time I read the news. It's hard to tell whether there are more earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and tsunamis this year, or if the media's (and my) appetite for them is keener.
But it is not really accurate to call these events "natural disasters". In the case of the hurricanes, global warming, which is directly linked to human patterns of consumption, has created an environment where unusually large and less predictable storms take form. It's not accurate to say that global warming "caused" Katrina and Rita, but more storms like them are what the climate scientists predict. It is fair to say that flooding was a result of having people live below sea level with inadequate protections around them. Wildfires and mudslides have everything to do with land management and the ways human settlement encroach on forested areas. Even with earthquakes, the types of housing and the places people live are patterns that allow an earthquake to become a disaster.
The reason this is an important distinction is that when we stop seeing disasters as "natural" and "inevitable" and start seeing them as outcomes of choices made by humans, governments and other actors have a stronger mandate to prevent, to prepare, and to plan a response. These are natural events that don't need to be disasters.
But it is not really accurate to call these events "natural disasters". In the case of the hurricanes, global warming, which is directly linked to human patterns of consumption, has created an environment where unusually large and less predictable storms take form. It's not accurate to say that global warming "caused" Katrina and Rita, but more storms like them are what the climate scientists predict. It is fair to say that flooding was a result of having people live below sea level with inadequate protections around them. Wildfires and mudslides have everything to do with land management and the ways human settlement encroach on forested areas. Even with earthquakes, the types of housing and the places people live are patterns that allow an earthquake to become a disaster.
The reason this is an important distinction is that when we stop seeing disasters as "natural" and "inevitable" and start seeing them as outcomes of choices made by humans, governments and other actors have a stronger mandate to prevent, to prepare, and to plan a response. These are natural events that don't need to be disasters.
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