A positive side of disaster

摘要

It may seem heartless, or at least inappropriate, to talk of natural disasters as windows of opportunity. Because they are major shocks to socio-economic systems, disasters such as Cyclone Nargis (Myanmar, 2008) or Hurricane Katrina (United States, 2005) are capable of wiping out entire settlements, destroying the lives and livelihoods of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, and wreaking material destruction on a massive scale1. The poor suffer most. But writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, McSweeney and Coomes suggest that even such disastrous events may sometimes yield positive economic outcomes for the rural poor.