Are “Natural” Disasters Really Natural?

Why Does The Adjective “Natural” Disaster continue to be used?

It is our often unconscious anthropocentric view that results in humans describing things according to how they affect them or make them feel, rather than according to the phenomenon’s role in the world and universe we live in. We do this to different degrees, unconsciously or consciously. I find a link to this even in the way we respond to things that happen to us day to day, thinking that things are happening “to us” as an external thing out to get us. Everything that we experience we classify according to “how does it make me feel?” and how much of a “threat” or possible benefit it is to us.

For this reason it is important to analyse our own positioning in our actions, thoughts, theory and practice. Even more so we need to understand our positioning because we are part of this system that we are so often seeing as a threat that is outside of ourselves. It is not something outside of us, we need to realise that we are it, it will only be as hostile as we make it. I think it is also largely to our philosophical/metaphysical positioning that affects such views and approaches.

Reflections

The take-away for this line of questioning is that disasters are various in what they are caused by and how they hit. Disasters can be caused by a number of triggers including earthquakes, extreme heat, drought, wildfire and also a number of human-induced triggers such as biological weapons, conflict, war, famine and so on. I do think, however that the distinction between types of triggers for disaster is not black and white. One could argue that certain natural triggers are due to human effect on the climate.

How fast disaster hits also varies. For example, there are slow-onset disasters like drought and famine and rapid-onset disasters such as floods, earthquakes and tsunami.

What stood out to me was part of the findings of a report by the World Bank titled “Natural Hazard, Unnatural Disasters.” One main finding was that disaster exposes the cumulative implications of earlier decisions made individually, collectively or by default. This shows that prevention is possible and cost effect, however, the public and private sectors need to work together. This throws into sharp relief the kind of systems thinking that is required of us to deal with situations such as disaster vulnerability, risk reduction, mitigation, preparation, response and management.

Book List

In relation to the above discussion, two books on my shopping list are:

1. This changes everything by Naomi Klein

Figure 1: Source: https://naomiklein.org/this-changes-everything/

I am interested in the correlation that Naomi Klein talks about in her book ‘This Changes Everything’ between Climate Change and Capitalism. The thing that I often reflect on is how tightly we grip to mechanisms of making money when everything points towards their heavily detrimental effects and the need to change things. We have always been learning and shifting, and sometimes I wonder about why things have to be so full of attachment and reluctance and denial. Change is tough and it is destructive to make place for new and better things to come out (ideally), but there is always something, it is but a bittersweet opportunity. If only we focused more of our energy on transition rather than denial. I am interested in this book because it deals with denial of climate change, what needs to change and what capitalism brings into the picture.

2. Un-natural Disaster: Why most responses to risk and climate chance fail but some succeed by

Gonzalo Lizarralde

Figure 1: Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56198923-unnatural-disasters

What attracted to this book is the fact that Gonzalo Lizarralde calls it “Un-natural Disaster”. Like Ilan Kelman, Gonzalo Lizarralde “explains how the causes of disasters are not natural but all too human: inequality, segregation, marginalization, colonialism, neoliberalism, racism, and unrestrained capitalism.” (2021)

References

Klein, N. (2015). This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Penguin.

Lizarralde, G. (2021). Unnatural Disasters: Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed. Columbia University Press.

Kelman, I. 2010. Natural Disasters Do Not Exist (Natural Hazards Do Not Exist Either) Version 3, 9 July 2010 (Version 1 was 26 July 2007). Downloaded from http://www.ilankelman.org/miscellany/NaturalDisasters.doc