In Catastrophe in the Making: The Engineering of Katrina and the Disasters of Tomorrow, William R. Freudenburg, Robert Gramling, Shirley Laska, and Kai T. Erikson outline the very timely and pressing issues of moral hazards and adverse selection that unwise development practices have brought upon ourselves. Using the very tangible example of Hurricane Katrina, the authors walk readers through the colorful history of New Orleans and southern Louisiana, provide a clearly understandable description of the movement of tropical storm systems, and explain their theories on how and why Katrina had so devastating an impact on this economically, historically, and culturally important city. They rightly eschew pointing the finger of responsibility at the obvious ineptness of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), but instead focus on the centuries-old patterns of development that weakened the Big Easy’s natural defenses against storms such as Katrina. Taking readers through the steps (and missteps) associated with how and why development occurred as it did, they draw us along on an interesting and informative history lesson in the study of a system of failures. Generally balanced in their criticism, the authors assign responsibility for the disaster to the (publicly funded) “Growth Machine” that values economic development over environmental stewardship. Their main premise is that modern-day “pirates” have directed public funds to implement (potentially) environmentally destructive projects with little societal benefit, which profit a select few and, by artificially spreading the risk and cost, do not allow the markets to act rationally.
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