On his book Rethinking Readiness: A Brief Guide to Twenty-First-Century Megadisasters
Cover Interview of July 22, 2020
In a nutshell
We see more and more disasters in the news every day. It is
getting to the point where, with the exception of the current COVID-19
pandemic, major record-setting disasters barely make the news cycle for more
than a few days. And despite billions in investments to prevent, prepare for,
respond to and recover from disasters, the report card for preparedness is
mixed at best.
As we learn more about disasters, we begin to see
complexities upon complexities. Disasters are the culmination of a mosaic of
factors from the built environment, politics, social structures, ecological
dynamics, to culture, and social psychological factors. They are created,
managed and burdened through an uncoordinated symphony of stakeholders that all
contribute to our societal resilience, whether they know it or not.
And yet, we aren’t built to look at the whole picture. We
specialize in various areas of expertise, and focus on the most recent disaster
in memory. But the trajectory of societal development is increasing our
vulnerability to disasters, as well as to the overarching threats themselves.
This book guides the reader through five looming areas of
megadisasters where human activity is contributing to both the threat and the
vulnerability. Through the topics of biothreats (including pandemics), climate
change, critical infrastructure failure, cyber threats, and nuclear conflict,
the nature and potential of these megadisasters is foretold. Commentary from
experts in the field who have dedicated their efforts to mitigating these
disasters helps to add more context to the scenarios in each chapter. The final
chapters look at the cross-cutting themes, and start to illuminate the way
ahead, to break the cycle of contributing to these threats and vulnerabilities.
This book should be seen as a primer on this topic. It is a
slim volume providing an overview as a launching pad for deeper analysis and
understanding. This book is not exhaustive in all of the disaster types we
face, and indeed, there are many more that could have been included. Nor can it
possibly identify all of the steps to take for readiness in the face of such
complexity. But it does offer approaches to build our capacity for managing
uncertainty, and for better integrating resilience into our thinking.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
In a nutshell
We see more and more disasters in the news every day. It is getting to the point where, with the exception of the current COVID-19 pandemic, major record-setting disasters barely make the news cycle for more than a few days. And despite billions in investments to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters, the report card for preparedness is mixed at best.
As we learn more about disasters, we begin to see complexities upon complexities. Disasters are the culmination of a mosaic of factors from the built environment, politics, social structures, ecological dynamics, to culture, and social psychological factors. They are created, managed and burdened through an uncoordinated symphony of stakeholders that all contribute to our societal resilience, whether they know it or not.
And yet, we aren’t built to look at the whole picture. We specialize in various areas of expertise, and focus on the most recent disaster in memory. But the trajectory of societal development is increasing our vulnerability to disasters, as well as to the overarching threats themselves.
This book guides the reader through five looming areas of megadisasters where human activity is contributing to both the threat and the vulnerability. Through the topics of biothreats (including pandemics), climate change, critical infrastructure failure, cyber threats, and nuclear conflict, the nature and potential of these megadisasters is foretold. Commentary from experts in the field who have dedicated their efforts to mitigating these disasters helps to add more context to the scenarios in each chapter. The final chapters look at the cross-cutting themes, and start to illuminate the way ahead, to break the cycle of contributing to these threats and vulnerabilities.
This book should be seen as a primer on this topic. It is a slim volume providing an overview as a launching pad for deeper analysis and understanding. This book is not exhaustive in all of the disaster types we face, and indeed, there are many more that could have been included. Nor can it possibly identify all of the steps to take for readiness in the face of such complexity. But it does offer approaches to build our capacity for managing uncertainty, and for better integrating resilience into our thinking.