Humanity cannot — now — avoid troubled and turbulent times. Extreme events will powerfully influence the course ahead, the shape of things to come after the turmoil. They could help or hinder: provide the moral force for urgent action or preoccupy us with crisis management.
Writers like Rebecca Solnit and Junot Diaz have described the revelatory, and potentially revolutionary, nature of disasters. Not only can they bring out the best in us, and connect and empower us, but they also lay bare the social conditions and choices that often cause or contribute to disasters, delivering a societal shock that makes change possible.
