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

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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. Over time, Indigenous practices adapted the ecosystems to support plant species that could survive low-intensity bushfires, actually using fire to propagate. Fire was part of land use and land management, integrated into human needs among other environmental adjustments, although we do not really know how many fire disasters the Indigenous Australians might have caused nor how many of them perished in the flames.

Throughout, his message is clear: there is no such thing as a natural disaster. The disaster lies in our inability to deal with the environment and with ourselves.

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’. At the heart of Ilan Kelman's book is a striking claim - 'natural' disasters don't really exist. Instead, it's suggested, there are natural hazards and we choose by our actions (or often inactions) whether or not to turn these into disasters. 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.

The baseline is that we have options regarding where we live, how we build, and how we get ourselves ready for living with nature," Kelman maintains. "Nature does not choose, but we do. We can choose to avoid disasters and that means disasters are not natural." 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. In a story that resonates with the moorland fires in England, three people in July 2016 chose to camp in the woodlands around Nederland, Colorado, and did not properly extinguish their barbeque. One day later a wildfire lit up the forest in the Cold Springs Fire, which killed numerous animals, forced 2000 people to evacuate, and destroyed eight homes. The trio were arrested and tried. Their sentence allows them to work during the day, returning to prison at night. It will take them the remainder of their lives to pay for the damages awarded against them. However, eight houses within the burnt area were participating in the Wildfire Partners programme of mitigation measures. These survived.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. 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. 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

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.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. S Sareen, A Smith, S Gantioler, J Balest, C M Brisbois, S Tomasi, B Sovacool, G A Torres Contreras, N Dellavalle & H Haarstad 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. Lava at 2,200ºF and a tsunami higher than our building are harder to ride out. But we can shun places likely to be hit by them or we can create a culture that understands and accepts periodic destruction, again with warning and safe evacuation, to permit swift rebuilding afterwards. The baseline is that we have options regarding where we live, how we build, and how we get ourselves ready for living with nature. The main message of this book is that disasters are not natural. Societies and humanity choose to create them. We can also, with insight, economic resources and political will, choose to prevent them. The tornado, tsunamic or earthquake are not to blame. Disasters arise when we fail to build suitable housing capable of withstanding 400 kph winds, fail to shun places subject to lava flows or tsunamis, or do not create a culture of warning and safe shelter for all – including for those with disabilities. Disasters for all, whether affluent or poor, able or disabled, are caused by vulnerabilities, not hazards. I hope that this book is widely read and its message heeded.

From Australia's bush fires to the disruption caused across the UK by storms in recent weeks, there's no shortage of stories in the news reporting at first hand the grim effects that extreme weather can have on even the best prepared communities. kills thousands annually from hot and humid or cold and windy weather. If all of us could afford adequate indoor 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. Home owners can design and maintain their houses and land to reduce the chance of them catching alight during a bushfire. No guarantees ever exist of saving property, but we have seen the difference in Australia this year between those whose dwellings survived and those who sadly lost everything or who tragically perished while staying behind to defend.And three, where money is spent, it is often not spent wisely. We tend to focus on reducing the hazard rather than reducing people’s vulnerability. Kelman makes this point by talking of the rather obscure area of earthquake modification, the pie-in-the-sky idea of trying to control tectonic shifts (reducing the hazard), rather than focusing on constructing earthquake-proof infrastructure (reducing the vulnerability). I feel his example of how we deal with floods would have been better here. To wit, we often build expensive defences that need continuous maintenance (reducing the hazard), whereas we should construct houses that can handle a flood or avoid such areas altogether (reducing the vulnerability). The New York National Guard loads cars with meals to distribute to those in quarantine due to COVID-19. (Credit: The National Guard) This perfectly crafted and well written book [...] is long overdue, much needed and greatly welcomed." As Kelman mentions, these are all “essential pieces of the disaster jigsaw”, but he unfortunately does not really assemble them. And that is a shame, as I feel Kelman makes some excellent points of which I will highlight three. Some hazards release their forces and energies swiftly with little specific warning. While we know broadly where earthquakes could strike at any time, such as Haiti and Jamaica, we cannot yet predict that an earthquake will occur in a specific place at a specific time. We know broadly where hurricanes could strike, also including Haiti and Jamaica, and we can observe the progress of a specific hurricane, but we cannot predict beyond a few days in advance when and where a major storm might make landfall. We know that Haiti and Jamaica are vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, epidemics, and many other hazards because of their long-term social inequities and infrastructure inadequacies.