How the world breaks : life in catastrophe's path, from the Caribbean to Siberia / Stan Cox and Paul Cox.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cox, Stan, author.

Cox, Paul, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Natural disasters--Social aspects.

Natural disasters.

Human beings--Effect of environment on.

Human beings.

Resilience (Personality trait).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (417 pages) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, New York ; London, [England] : The New Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"We've always lived on a dangerous planet, but its disasters aren't what they used to be. How the World Breaks gives us a breathtaking new view of crisis and recovery on the unstable landscapes of the Earth's hazard zones. Father and son authors Stan and Paul Cox take us to the explosive fire fronts of overheated Australia, the future lost city of Miami, the fights over whether and how to fortify New York City in the wake of Sandy, the Indonesian mud volcano triggered by natural gas drilling, and other communities that are reimagining their lives after quakes, superstorms, tornadoes, and landslides. In the very decade when we should be rushing to heal the atmosphere and address the enormous inequalities of risk, a strange idea has taken hold of global disaster policy: resilience. Its proponents say that threatened communities must simply learn the art of resilience, adapt to risk, and thereby survive. This doctrine obscures the human hand in creating disasters and requires the planet's most beleaguered people to absorb the rush of floodwaters and the crush of landslides, freeing the world economy to go on undisturbed. The Coxes' great contribution is to pull the disaster debate out of the realm of theory and into the muck and ash of the world's broken places. There we learn that change is more than mere adaptation and life is more than mere survival. Ultimately, How the World Breaks reveals why--unless we address the social, ecological, and economic roots of disaster--millions more people every year will find themselves spiraling into misery. It is essential reading for our time"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 FIRE REGIMES

2 LEAVE IT UP TO BATMAN

3 NEIGHBORS TO THE SKY

4 EVERY SILVER LINING . . .

5 GRAY GOO

6 HOW TO BOOBY-TRAP A PLANET

7 FORESHOCK, SHOCK, AFTERSHOCK

8 ATLANTIS OF THE AMERICAS

9 ENGINEER, DEFEND, INSURE, ABSORB, LEAVE

10 THE ABSORBERS

11 VULNERABILITY SEEPS IN EVERYWHERE

12 KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON

13 "WE DO THINGS BIG HERE"

14 WHEN MOUNTAINS FALL

EPILOGUE

NOTES

INDEX.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781620970133

1620970139

OCLC:

1503844923