There Are No Natural Disasters

Anyone who knows me has heard me say – repeatedly – that there is no such thing as a “natural disaster”. This is a hill I will die on. Every time I see that phrase in a news article or hear it out of someone’s mouth, I cringe. Hazards are natural, disasters are a result of social construct.

Rivers often flood every year. This is why there is an area – a flood plain – mapped around rivers. We know where and how these rivers will overrun their banks during heavy rain fall or snow melt. This happening is natural – it is a natural hazard and is relatively non-harmful when left to do what nature does. However, when we build houses in that flood plain the natural flooding of that river becomes a disaster. It was social construction that caused the collision between a natural hazard and human impact. If we’d never built those homes there, there would have been no disaster.

We can look to lax building codes for a lot of earthquake, tornado, and hurricane related disaster outcomes. The Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is often a neglected aspect of wildfire damage – we build homes too close to the forest and create landscapes in a way that encourages fire exposure. Building communities near bases of hills or mountains puts them at a higher landslide risk – landslides will always happen, but if buildings are at the bottom of those hills a natural slide becomes a disaster. Also, logging on hillsides creates more severe landslide risks. Poor public infrastructure and inadequate policy lead to injuries and deaths during heat waves or extreme cold weather. I could go on (and on) but you get the idea.

Labelling an event as “natural” implies that there was nothing anyone could have done to stop it or to lessen the impact. This is simply untrue. I am in no way – let me say that again, I am in no way – blaming disaster victims for what has happened to them. Individuals and communities often have no idea that the home they are buying or the business they are building is in harms way. I am, definitively, blaming decades of unchecked urban planning, capitalistic greed, and a lack of comprehensive public policy.

The first step is to stop using the phrase “natural disasters”. Simply use the phrases “hazards” and “disasters”. The second step is to take a closer look at how – and where - we are building our communities. Additionally, inclusive public policy and robust infrastructure will further protect people and property from the effects of natural hazards when they occur. These aren’t changes we can make overnight. But as our world heats up, our climate changes, and more and more disasters are occurring, we cannot lose hope. We can make positive change, if only we know where to start.