The Blessings of Disaster

Are we doomed? As individuals, certainly, eventually, inevitably. But as a species? As a civilization? Leading catastrophe engineer Michel Bruneau thinks perhaps not. The Blessings of Disaster draws on knowledge from multiple disciplines to illustrate how our civilizations future successes and failures in dealing with societal threatsbe they pandemics, climate change, overpopulation, monetary collapse, and nuclear holocaustcan be predicted by observing how we currently cope with and react to natural and technological disasters. Maybe most importantly, this entertaining and often counter-intuitive book shows how we can think in better ways about disasters, to strengthen and extend our existence as both individuals and as a species. When it comes to rare extreme events, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornados, volcanic eruptions, technological accidents, terrorist attacks, pandemics, and even existential threats, it is in our nature to set ourselves up for disasters because the gamble may be worth it. But only maybe. The Blessing of Disaster is the very real story of the relationship between humans and disasters and its not a simple one. Bringing together his decades-long career spanning the globe as an earthquake and disaster engineer, detailed catastrophe case studies from extreme events like Japans Kobe earthquake and category 5 hurricanes in the American South, along with thoughtful and practical solutions, Bruneau provides a thorough examination of the structural challenges that face todays (and tomorrows) world. How we cope with todays threats is indicative of what the future holds. Contrary to popular forecasts, it is not all gloom and doom but some of it definitely is.