The Changing Context of Hazard Extremes: Events, Impacts, and Consequences

Abstract

Recognizing that it does not take an extreme event to produce extreme consequences, White argued for an equal emphasis on technologically-oriented solutions to natural hazards problems, along with emphases on the social, economic, and political factors that lead to the adoption or non-adoption of alternatives for managing disaster risk. The paradox of modern society is that we are not achieving this balance — we have more knowledge and abilities to manipulate nature, yet simultaneously have increased our exposure and susceptibility to natural hazards through our own actions, myopia, and development patterns. The changing context of hazards necessitates more progressive approaches to disaster risk management. This means a reframing of current programs and policies away from response to a more proactive and longer term emphases on enhancing resilience at local to global scales. It also means expanding our definitions of extreme events and extreme consequences. Linking hazards science and practice to larger societal changes and development objectives is the path toward a more resilient future, a goal that personifies the scholarship of White and his student, Mitchell.