Pakistan, 71, 92–93
Paulsen, Fernando, 111, 114
peak ground acceleration (PGA), 98, 101
Philippines, 38, 63, 78, 147–48, 156–57
Piketty, Thomas, 42
Piñera, Sebastián, 112, 116
Pitt, Brad, 120
poverty
corruption and, 26, 48, 109
disaster-related deaths and, 29, 41
geography and, 51–56, 59, 65, 67, 71, 76–77, 80–82, 211
Haiti and, 85–86, 88, 94, 97, 99, 109, 115, 118–19
Los Angeles and, 184
Myanmar and, 139, 145, 161
New Orleans and, 159–60, 203
physical aspect of, 25–26
poverty trap, 46–48, 145, 149, 159
Sri Lanka and, 131
violence and, 103–4, 188
see also wealth
prediction
Cyclone Nargis and, 145
cyclones/hurricanes, 61–64
disaster, 23–24, 137
hazard and, 23
Hurricane Katrina and, 168
earthquakes, 2–3, 61, 64–70, 77, 94, 97–98
overview, 4–5
poverty and, 243
Superstorm Sandy and, 80, 208
Typhoon Naiyan (Yolanda) and, 157
Préval, René, 94–95
profiteering, 83, 97, 210–11, 223–24
Prospect Theory, 4
public unrest, disaster and
class and, 215–20
DDR and, 220–22
overview, 213–15, 223–24
purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustment, 44
Quarantelli, Enrico, 177–79
quarantines, 16
Rana Plaza sweatshop collapse, 36–37, 72–73, 77, 94–95
randomized control trials (RCTs), 10
rebuilding, social change and
BNOB and, 197–201
Hurricane Katrina and, 194–97
KBR and, 201–2
New Orleans post-Katrina, 202–4
overview, 191–94
race and, 204–8
Superstorm Sandy and, 198–200, 208–11
Red Cross, 35, 80, 89, 147
Rede Lecture, 25
refugees, 37, 103, 261n41
regional development banks, 23, 118
ReliefWeb, 92
Rise of the Warrior Cop (Balko), 215
Rozario, Kevin, 193–94
Sachs, Jeffrey, 51, 53, 78, 243–44
Sae-A, 118–19
Saffir-Simpson scale, 63–64, 147, 171
see also cyclones
Sanco Enterprises, 117–18
Santorum, Rick, 196
Sastry, Narayan, 201
Schmitz, Eugene, 186–87
Schumpeter, Joseph, 13, 96, 110, 131, 154, 192, 220
Sebold, W. G., 22
Sein, Thein, 150–51
seismology
Chile and, 110
prediction and, 2–3, 22, 30, 120–21
Haiti earthquake and, 5
L’Aquila earthquake and, 69–70, 72
Major Risks Committee, 69
New Zealand earthquakes and, 76
peak ground acceleration, 98
study of earthquakes, 57, 60–61, 68–69, 76
tectonic plate map, 57
Tohoku earthquake and, 66
see also earthquakes; faults
Selth, Andrew, 153–54
September 11, 36–37, 39, 174, 177, 201, 273n2
Sharkey, Patrick, 197
Shwe, Than, 164, 174
Skidmore, Mark, 13
slipperiness, 136
Snow, C. P., 25
Sobel, Russell, 202
Solow, Robert, 239
Solow-Swan model, 239, 242–43
South Korea, 16
Sri Lanka, 126–32, 137, 146
starvation, 35–36
Stiglitz, Joseph, 11, 42
Stiller, Ben, 120
Superstorm Sandy, 34, 38, 47, 59, 62, 80–81, 166, 198, 208–10
Talmadge, Caitlin, 173
tectonic plates, 57, 125
see also earthquakes
Thieves of State (Chayes), 97
Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 4
Thompson, A.C., 187–88
tofu dregs, 71, 95–96
Tohoku earthquake, 66, 132–36, 218
topography, 61, 64, 75–76, 100–1, 121, 130, 146
Toya, Hideki, 13
Transparency International, 77, 97, 110, 122, 157
tsunamis
death tolls and, 36
Japan, 11, 132–38
overview, 125–28
Sri Lanka, 128–32
typhoons, 11, 33, 58, 78, 148, 191
Japanese Typhoon Warning Center, 145
Typhoon Haiyan, 63, 147–48, 156
Typhoon Morakot, 33
unemployment, 86, 159, 188, 194, 203, 246
United Nations (UN)
Clinton, Bill and, 116
disaster risk and, 9–10, 23, 30
Haiti and, 87–88, 100, 103, 105–6, 117–18, 136–37
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), 127
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 27
MINUSTAH and, 87–88
System of National Accounts, 43
UNISAT, 100
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 90, 118
Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Act, 156
van Rysselberghe, Jacqueline, 115
volcanoes, 5, 22
vulnerability, 18–19, 47–48, 97, 158
warnings, 63–64, 69, 80–81, 94, 112, 126–28, 130, 145, 148–49, 151, 168, 172
wealth
earthquakes and, 56–58, 64–77
GDP density map, 52
Guttenberg-Richter relationship and, 60
meteorology and, 61–64
night lights data and, 53–56
overview, 51–55
predicting disasters and, 59–61
storms and, 58–59
see also poverty
Weinstein, David, 134
World Bank
China and, 95–96
Collier, Paul and, 116–17
economic recovery and, 228
GDP and, 42, 122, 140
Haiti and, 88
hazards and, 23
Myanmar and, 140
rebuilding and, 9, 15
Sri Lanka and, 128, 131
World Fact Book (CIA), 140
World War I, 199
World War II, 22, 24, 42, 89, 100, 140–41, 171, 199
young urban rebuilding professionals (YURPs), 206
About the Author
Credit: David Dini
John C. Mutter is a professor at Columbia University with appointments in the departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and in International and Public Affairs. Previously deputy director of the Earth Institute, he is currently a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A contributor to the blog site OECD and to Earth magazine, Mutter has appeared on broadcast media, including CNN and CBS. He lives in New York City.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Contents
Copyright Notice
Introduction: Crossing the Feynman Line
1: Natural Disasters: Agents of Social Good and Evil
2: The Geography of Wealth and Poverty: Knowledge and Natural Disasters
3: Carnage in the Caribbean, Chaos in Concepción
4: Walls of Water, Oceans of Death
5: Malevolence by Neglect in Myanmar
6: Struck Dumb in New Orleans
7: Rebuilding as Social Engineering
8: Disasters as Casus Belli
Technical Appendix I: Simplified Socioeconomics of Natural Disaster Shocks and Their Consequences
Technical Appendix II: Disasters in Neoclassical Growth Theory
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author
Newsletter Signup
Copyright
THE DISASTER PROFITEERS. Copyright © 2015 by John C. Mutter. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Jacket design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Jacket photograph © Spencer Platt/Getty Images; back cover © Nejron Photo/Shutterstock
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mutter, John C.
Disaster profiteers : how natural disasters make the rich richer and the poor even poorer / John C. Mutter.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-137-27898-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-7941-6 (e-book)
1. Natural disasters—Economic aspects. 2. Natural disasters—Social aspects. 3. Profiteering. 4. Equality. I. Title.
HC79.D45M87 2015
363.34’4—dc23
2015001251
e-ISBN 978-1-4668-7941-6
First Edition: August 2015
St. Martin’s Press books may be purchased for educational, business, or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or write to [email protected].
The Disaster Profiteers: How Natural Disasters Make the Rich Richer and the Poor Even Poorer Page 28