Disasterology
Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Part memoir, part expert analysis, Disasterology is a passionate and personal account of a country in crisis—one unprepared to deal with the disasters of today and those looming in our future.
With temperatures rising and the risk of disasters growing, our world is increasingly vulnerable. Most people see disasters as freak, natural events that are unpredictable and unpreventable. But that simply isn’t the case – disasters are avoidable, but when they do strike, there are strategic ways to manage the fallout.
In Disasterology, Dr. Montano, a disaster researcher, brings readers with her on an eye-opening journey through some of our worst disasters, helping readers make sense of what really happened from a emergency management perspective. She explains why we aren’t doing enough to prevent or prepare for disasters, the critical role of media, and how our approach to recovery was not designed to serve marginalized communities. Now that climate change is contributing to the disruption of ecosystems and worsening disasters, Dr. Montano offers a preview of what will happen to our communities if we don’t take aggressive, immediate action. In a section devoted to the COVID-19 pandemic, what is thus far our generation’s most deadly disaster, she casts light on the many decisions made behind closed doors that failed to protect the public.
A deeply moving and timely narrative that draws on Dr. Montano's first-hand experience in emergency management, Disasterology is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how our country handles disasters, and how we can better face them together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Montano, assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, debuts with a trenchant if uneven look at communities that are fighting for survival in the face of climate change. Montano's passion stems from a formative trip she took as a teenager in 2005 to help New Orleanians rebuild their homes after Hurricane Katrina—she returned there for college and was aghast that, years after the storm, the recovery effort was incomplete and relied on "voluntourism" groups to rebuild the city. Montano argues that America's national emergency system is based on a model of "limited intervention," and amounts to "cobbled-together, underfunded system isn't working." As a fix, she calls for "disaster justice" and encourages readers to get involved in politics and push for emergency management to be seen as a priority for politicians. Her indignation is paired with comprehensive research, but the narrative often gets bogged down in repetitively cataloging the author's experiences in, among other places, Louisiana, coastal Maine, and Texas—so much so that the disaster victims themselves feel conspicuously absent. Despite these missing voices, this is a great primer on the deficiencies of the country's crisis response apparatus.
