DISASTER BY CHOICE

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 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 book explores stories of some of our wo