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

Product Information

Taking us from the everyday numbers that govern our health and wellbeing to the statistics used to wield enormous power and influence, ‘The Number Bias’ counsels us to think more wisely. He explores the science – and ethics – of genetic engineering and its potential to create ‘designer babies’. 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. Despite environmental destruction impacting mental health and wellbeing, connecting science, art, and action helps heal and improve. But we can combat this, as Kelman shows, describing inspiring examples ofeffective human action that limits damage, such as managing flooding in Toronto and villages in Bangladesh, or wildfires in Colorado.

If you continue without changing your settings we'll assume you are happy to receive all GSL cookies. They tell us how we’re doing at school, how much we weigh, who might win an election and whether the economy is booming. A new scientific study explores how youth’s disaster-coping strategies can lead to maladjustment or adjustment. But we can combat this, as Kelman shows, describing inspiring examples of effective human action that limits damage, such as managing flooding in Toronto and villages in Bangladesh, or wildfires in Colorado.Environmental psychology and philosophy take us from "solastalgia" to radical anticipation of a new era. Games can help change our psychology about disasters, creating confidence that we can and should prevent them. We put ourselves in harm’s way; we fail to take measures which we know would prevent disasters, no matter what the environment does. Sanne Blauw travels the world to unpick our relationship with numbers and demystify our misguided allegiance, from Florence Nightingale using statistics to petition for better conditions during the Crimean War to the manipulation of numbers by the American tobacco industry and the ambiguous figures pedalled during the EU referendum. Disasters arise from a lack of preparedness, which may result from individual actions or a lack of political will.

Indigenous people in northern Sweden experience the mental health impact of losing their land, heritage, and livelihood.In this provocative book, Ilan Kelman argues that the true disaster is not caused by natural phenomena, but by human choices which leave people unprepared and at terrible risk. An] engaging book filled with rich examples and details of specific historical events Kelmans succinct and generally lucid account of the state of knowledge within the field, will likely be useful to a wide range of readers. Damming Finland’s River Kemi wrecked livelihoods and people-land connections, exemplifying mental health impacts from human-caused environmental change. Disaster by Choice really brings the examples and recommendations down to our daily lives and practices to make them more impactful.

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. He looks at the burgeoning immune therapies that could one day cure such life-threatening diseases as cancer. 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. 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. 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.I am typing this review in the aftermath of property-damaging floods in the UK and life-taking wildfires in Australia, and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Discover and access geoscience information resources via one of the world’s premier Earth science libraries.