Overview

The number of humanitarian disasters triggered by a natural hazard has doubled every decade since the 1960's. At the same time, the global economic growth rate per capital is twice its 1960's value. Does this mean economic growth is independent of the impacts of natural disaster? This was certainly the view for many years, but the scale of human lives and economic assets at risk today means that the global economy itself is at risk from catastrophe. As we become aware of the global scale processes of environmental change and economic liberalisation, it is becoming increasingly clear how fundamental these global pressures are for shaping local geographies of risk. The contributors to this book look at the disaster-development relationship under globalisation from three different perspectives. First there is an examination of global processes ad how they might affect disaster risk at the global scale. Secondly, links between international issues, such as diplomatic relations, the growth of non-governmental organisations and the health of the international insurance industry, and disaster risk are explored. Thirdly, the interaction of these large scale forces with local conditions are examined through case study analysis of individual disaster events, from the so-called developed and developing worlds. Natural Disaster and Development in a Globalizing World makes clear that there are links between global scale processes and local experiences of disaster, but underlies the difficulty of attributing blame for individual disasters on specific global pressures. It is argues that action to reduce disaster needs to be coordinated at the local, national and global scales and that there is a need for greater integration across the physical and social sciences. In this context, the human rights agenda is seen as a way of moving disaster reduction efforts forward.

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Mark Pelling

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