AMU Emergency Management Opinion Public Safety

Oh, and by the way …

I think Mother Nature has a sense of humor. I really do. It’s not a very nice sense of humor. It’s amoral, heartless, and sometimes even vicious. But it is a [link url= “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster” title= “trickster-type sense of humor“] that serves to educate even as it causes pain and loss. But if we listen, it could also serve to protect.

As [link url= “https://amuedge.com/education/lets-avoid-billion-dollar-disasters-before-they-happen/” title= “we’ve discussed previously,“] disasters come in two flavors: natural disasters and human-caused disasters. It’s not all that difficult to assert or understand that we need to prevent human-caused disasters because natural disasters do plenty to damage our civilization, set back the progress of society, and so on. Human-caused disasters are the ones we can influence, so we should influence them. Preferably make them extinct.

On the other hand, natural disasters teach us a lot about how to live successfully on the earth. If we actually listened to the warnings, we would consider these constraints and plan accordingly:

  • Don’t build cities on the beach
  • Don’t build cities on earthquake faults
  • Don’t deplete the groundwater faster than it naturally replenishes
  • Don’t build homes where the natural wildland fire cycle is important to the environment
  • Don’t build homes in floodplains

Of course, we do a lot of all of these. We couldn’t decline the opportunity to build on the beach if we wanted to. So we buckle up and take the ride to wherever it leads. Mother Nature does what she does. She sends storms. She causes droughts. Earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis–they’re all going to happen.

I think Mother Nature is amused–in her own way–about two human characteristics in particular:

  1. The human ability to ignore threats that hang over a population like the Sword of Damocles
  2. The human ability to focus intently on one threat while ignoring all others

Regarding number one: The paragraphs above represent examples of what we ignore at our peril. We do a really good job of ignoring them. And so it’s important that we who plan for such things to be ready to respond and adapt when the inevitable happens. Because it will.

Regarding number two: Even as we dig out this weekend from a record snowstorm in the Northeast, Mother Nature has sent a magnitude 7.1 earthquake to the Northwest. Her message is clear: ‘Yes, you have one type of emergency that you’re dealing with now, but that doesn’t mean you can forget about the others. They can happen anytime. (and I love to pair them up just to see how you’ll respond)’

So to help you frame your thinking for the week on this Monday morning, allow me to remind you of some of the things that we have been ignoring at our peril:

  1. Seattle is [link url= “http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one” title= “overdue for an earthquake“] that might measure between 8.0 and 9.2.
  2. Istanbul is [link url= “http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/03/turkey-braces-next-major-earthquake-201431182932518813.html” title= “due for an earthquake“] as large as 7.0 that could impact 14 million people.
  3. 2015 was [link url= “http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/us/noaa-2015-warmest-year/” title= “the hottest year on record.“] 2014 was the second hottest year on record. Can you spell ‘trend’?
  4. The Ogallala Aquifer is [link url= “http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ogallala-aquifer/” title= “literally disappearing from beneath multiple states“] in America’s heartland, threatening food production in the US.
  5. Lake Mead, the primary water source for Las Vegas, [link url= “http://www.livescience.com/51916-lake-mead-drought-photo.html” title= “is down 120 feet from its maximum level.“] Estimates are that the lake could go dry by 2021.
  6. The city of Miami Beach is [link url= “http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami” title= “disappearing beneath our feet“] at an increasing rate.
  7. As reported by my colleague [link url= “http://edmdigest.com/author/karsenault/” title= “Kimberly Arsenault,“] 2015 was the [link url= “https://amuedge.com/wildfires-worst-ever-in-2015/” title= “worst wildland fire season in history.“] Any bets for this year?

Happy Monday! Plenty to think about. Plenty of good you can do. Just be aware that Mother Nature will be laughing if you do nothing.

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