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: Topics unchanged, but survivability focus added Earth & space related Earthquakes Volcanoes Tsunami * Mass wasting (avalanches) * Soil subsidence (sinkholes) and soil erosion/desertification + Space weather (solar activity; deniers’ favorite alternative fact) Impact events (meteorites; asteroids & comets) Climate change related Severe weather Hurricanes Tornadoes Flooding Coastal erosion Sea level rise (eustatic and continental ice mass melting/injection into oceans) 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); MacKay’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