Risk, Disaster, and Vulnerability: An Essay on Humanity and Environmental CatastropheOver the course of the past century, there has been a sustained reflective engagement about environmental risks, disasters, and human vulnerability in our modern industrial world. This inquiry has raised a host of crucial questions. Just how safe is humanity in a world of toxic chemicals and industrial installations that have destructive potential? Is it feasible to prevent large-scale catastrophes like the ones in Bhopal, Chernobyl, and Fukushima and smaller-scale disasters such as oil spills and gas leaks? How do environmental hazards affect social and political orders? S. Ravi Rajan expertly synthesizes decades of public policy and academic discourse on how societies measure and ultimately come to terms with risk, danger, and vulnerability and offers a fresh, humanistic perspective for grappling with the new global scale and interconnectedness of these threats. |
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action agencies ambiguity analysis Anthropocene approach argued Bhopal Bhopal gas disaster bioaccumulative Cambridge catastrophic chemicals Chernobyl Chernobyl Disaster communities complex concept consequences contexts corporate cultural debate decisions democracy economic effects environment Environmental Humanities environmental justice environmental risks example experts exposure factors failures Flint gas leak global goal hazards high reliability organization HROs human error impacts important individuals industrial disasters infrastructure interactions involving issues keywords laypeople literature ment mistakes Moreover nature neoliberal normal accident nuclear operators organization outcomes patterns of vulnerability Perrow plant political pollution post-normal science potential precautionary principle problem processes public policy reflexivity regulatory response result risk and disaster risk assessment risk management risk paradigm role ronmental safety scenario scientific significant silicosis social society stemming Stirling and Mayer strategy studies technocene technologies term theory tion toxic toxins Ulrich Beck uncertainty understanding Union Carbide University Press victims violations Wildavsky workers