Nearly a decade has passed since the first edition of Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness was published. During this time, there have been far-reaching changes in our understanding of and experience coping with natural hazards and climate change. During the same time period, disaster losses have continued to rise. In the United States, Hurricane Sandy has challenged us to more effectively protect highly urbanized areas from coastal storms and sea level rise, while infrastructure systems age and become increasingly brittle. Prolonged droughts in the American Southwest are pushing us to make difficult choices about how to conserve and distribute limited water supplies across competing agricultural, industrial, and residential needs. Some neighborhoods in Miami and South Florida are experiencing daily, high-tide flooding as the water table rises. Natural hazards are by no means a new phenomenon, but the scientific consensus regarding climate change makes it clear that these extreme events are precursors of sobering challenges to come.
The same can be said of disasters in the international context. While the global community struggles to deal with increasingly violent religious and ethnic strife, deadly civil wars, and vast numbers of refugees fleeing their native lands, it is apparent that the catalyst for many of these tragedies may be linked to extreme natural hazards resulting from climate change. One such instance has been documented in a study published by the National Academy of Sciences, which linked an extensive drought in Syria that occurred between 2006 and 2009 with climate change, finding the disaster was a contributing factor to the violent uprisings that began in that country in 2011. The 2015 Nepal earthquake that killed more than 8800 people and displaced nearly half a million more was another stark reminder that disastrous events in very poor and politically paralyzed nations tend to result in greater loss of life and exacerbate other social, economic, and environmental problems.
To address these growing risks, a number of initiatives have gained traction in recent years. The United States is limiting carbon pollution from power plants and cars and has proposed rules to address methane pollution. The National Flood Insurance Program was amended twice in 3 years as the nation grapples with the need to provide economic protections for communities and individuals in the floodplain while also promoting responsible and safe development. Philanthropies are showing particular interest in programs that support greater disaster resilience, exemplified by the Rockefeller Foundation investment of more than $100 million in the 100 Resilient Cities Challenge to support cities as they plan for the future.
Powerful conversations are also occurring in the private sector about the role of business and industry in creating an environment that is both good for commerce and good for people. In 2015, Europe’s six largest oil and gas companies called on governments to introduce a price for carbon emissions and are pressuring major U.S. oil companies to join this appeal. Businesses are taking steps, large and small, to make their own operations more resilient—incorporating redundancy in supply chains and investing in facilities and equipment that are threatened by increased heat, stronger storms, more frequent wildfires, or rising seas.
In December 2015, the world came together in unprecedented ways as 196 countries participated in the United Nations Climate Conference. The resulting Paris Agreement, which is intended to become legally binding, sets a goal that limits global warming and provides a financing mechanism to support less wealthy countries adapt to adverse impacts. While there are ongoing challenges to implementation and enforcement of the Agreement, it is undoubtedly an important step at the international level to confront the causes and effects of climate change worldwide.
However, in the midst of all this progress, much remains the same in the way that we plan for disasters at the local level. There is no magic bullet or technological fix that will make natural and human-made hazards disappear. Rather, it falls on individuals—emergency managers, city planners, building inspectors, resource managers, business owners, and homeowners—to anticipate risks and take steps to reduce them. It falls on neighborhoods, small towns, and large cities to learn about the potential hazards they face and plan for a safer, healthier future. For that reason, while the second edition of Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness includes updated examples, policy changes, and the latest climate science, the overarching guiding principles for avoiding disasters or lessening their impacts are much the same as they were a decade ago.
Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the International Panel on Climate Change, recently declared that, “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.” The implications of this statement are daunting, but we are not powerless to act. Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness is intended to lay out an approach and describe some of the strategies and tools needed to create more resilient communities.