INTEGRATING SUSTAINABILITY IN A WORLD FACING NATURAL DISASTERS

INTEGRATING SUSTAINABILITY IN A WORLD FACING NATURAL DISASTERS EARTH, PLANETARY, AND SPACE SCIENCES 13 “NATURAL DISASTERS” WILLIAM I. NEWMAN

NATURAL DISASTER EPS SCI 013 TOPICS: Earth & space related • Climate change related TOPICS UNCHANGED, BUT SURVIVABILITY FOCUS • Earthquakes • Severe weather ADDED • Volcanoes • Hurricanes • • Tsunami • Tornadoes • * Mass wasting (avalanches) • Flooding • * Soil subsidence (sinkholes) and soil erosion/desertification • Coastal erosion • + Space weather (solar activity; deniers’ favorite alternative fact) • Sea level rise (eustatic and continental ice mass melting/injection into oceans) • Impact events (meteorites; asteroids & comets) • Wildfires (plus erosion, soil depletion) • Pandemics (climate-driven pathogen movement) and species extinctions • Global climate change (big picture) • Overpopulation, famine, and drought • Energy options and sequestration in a carbon-negative world

SUSTAINABILITY IS MUCH MORE THAN THE 3 R’S: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE • EPS SCI 13 also satisfies the diversity requirement inasmuch as survivability— past, present, and future—and central; a different kind of “sustainability” is central • The “usual” sustainability issues relating to homes related to building materials; but there is much more relating to exposure to natural hazards; this transcends “resilience” • Homes should not be situated in areas where they are prone to • Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis; • Mass wasting (landslides), forest fires (land management), flooding, coastal erosion, sinkholes; • Energy conservation, insulation, and energy generation issues;

SUSTAINABILITY IS MUCH MORE THAN THE 3 R’S: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE (CONT. ) • Energy sourcing and carbon sequestration: renewables where possible; avoid coal at all cost (over hydrocarbons, inc. fracking); safe nuclear power (heavy-water moderated fission; fusion); Mac. Kay’s Sustainability without the Hot Air (physics and engineering based comprehensive study) • Transportation modality • Environmental cost of automobiles must be included in assessment; hydrogen fuel; electric vehicles with renewable energy sources (self-defeating in some regions of country) • Public transport (and restructured communities—tie in with housing); bicycles and walking • Suvivability in context of natural disasters must extend sustainability and resilience leitmotif