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

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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. 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. They are manifestations of nature that have occurred countless times over the aeons of Earth's history. The disaster consists of our inability to deal with them as part of nature. We have the knowledge, ability, technology, and resources to build houses which are not ripped apart by 250 mile per hour winds. If we choose to, we can create a culture with warning and safe sheltering. 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. 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.

This is an excellent little book that crystallises ideas about the influence and impact of human actions on natural catastrophes into a thoughtful and informative narrative, concluding – and rightly so – that there is no such thing as a natural disaster. A must-read book." Others prefer to work on smaller scales and less ambitious steps. They demonstrate more direct, more tangible, and more immediate positive impacts, which they hope, in the end, might scale up to wider, deeper changes. Examples are managing forests to permit small wildfires and retrofitting properties to withstand earthquakes, all while changing our behaviour so that we can withstand wildfires and earthquakes without harm. 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). 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. All this is well known, ever changing, and never totally learned. As Kelman points out, nothing stays the same for long. Cities spread, change shape and density and grow too big to shift around. Weather patterns change. Century storms occur with increasing frequency. No one can predict what’s next, but mostly, individuals don’t prepare for anything. It’s a zero priority in a tight budget. They expect to not have to deal with it in their lifetimes, or perhaps expect the authorities to take care of them. And it costs property owners money – maybe for nothing. None of these strategies work. Disasters produce damage and new costs. You never get the Milton Berle situation where a tornado sweeps through New Jersey, causing ten billion dollars in improvements.

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

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 [...] I hope that this book is widely read and its message heeded." 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."

Consequently, in the same way that disasters are not natural, they are not unusual or extreme. They dramatically expose the vulnerabilities with which people live, and are typically forced by others to live, on a daily basis. Like the maxim attributed to a number of different sources including Albert Einstein that insanity is the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, Kelman argues, we repeatedly fail to take measures that would prevent disasters.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. Ilan Kelman also tells the stories of various cities that figured out they should work with nature and not against it. They raise streets above flood level, make use of floodplains for flooding instead of roads, rails and housing, require tall buildings to be earthquake-proof and so on. Zoning can prevent building on the sides of volcanoes. Power should be well above flood level. Common sense stuff that few implement. 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. 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. 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.

The 2020 fires continue this pattern. Despite the heat wave and the fires' intensity and extent, plenty could have been done over the long-term to avoid the witnessed catastrophe. Over past decades, cities and towns have expanded significantly into burnable areas. One remarkable human story of vulnerability and making informed choices referenced by Kelman highlights the vital role hazard awareness plays. Marcos Verela in Costa Rica who remained calm amid an earthquake in 2012 was visually impaired but educated about how to respond by his grandfather, he stayed indoors to avoid falling power lines and other would-be hazards, saving his and his maids life. The book starts really well with a gripping description of the Haiti earthquake and its aftermath. Kelman makes a good job of telling the story and using it to powerful effect. He goes on to effectively describe some of the possible natural hazards that can lead to disasters, this time focusing his story on the mundane-seeming protection of Canvey Island from the Thames and on Australian bushfires (in a book written before 2019's devastating fires). We see how a combination of economics, politics and the human ability to not think to clearly about the future encourages a repeated failure to learn the lessons of past events.This book explores stories of some of our worst disasters to show how we can and should act to stop people dying when nature unleashes its energies. The disaster is not the tornado, the volcanic eruption, or climate change, but the deaths and injuries, the loss of irreplaceable property, and the