But with so many things that could go wrong and are going
wrong, sociologists are taking note (Erikson, 1995; Wisner,
2003).
One of the earliest sociological studies of a disaster was
Kai T. Erikson’s Everything in Its Path(1978), about the
human response to a dam that burst and flooded Buffalo
Creek in Logan County, West Virginia. One might expect sur-
vivors to experience long-term psychological trauma after los-
ing many of their loved ones and everything they owned, but
Erikson probed more deeply to investigate how they lost their
individual and communal identity: The “furniture of self” had
vanished.
In 1995, a week-long heat wave in Chicago was responsi-
ble for over 700 deaths. This was not a sudden catastrophe, so
why were so many people unprepared? Eric Klineberg (2003)
investigated the social conditions that led to and compounded
the disaster. He found the obvious, that many poor and elderly
people—and most of them Black women—had no air condi-
tioning. Some were not aware of the neighborhood “cooling
systems” or were afraid to go to them. Others did not realize
that they were in danger; the news media downplayed the dis-
aster, treating it as little more than a human-interest story.
The Asian tsunami of December 2004 that killed over
200,000 people may be too recent for a significant number
of sociological studies, but they are certainly forthcoming, as
is the study of the aftermaths of Hurricane Katrina and Rita,
as well as theorizing about the meaning of disaster in a soci-
ology that has been too frequently concerned with societies
as orderly and cohesive.
Environments in the 21st Century
What do we do now? Do we sit alone in our room, waiting for the next
hurricane, earthquake, tornado, nuclear accident, or biological pandemic,
or a more gradual catastrophe caused by global warming, air pollution,
desertification, or overpopulation? Do we play video games, eat nachos,
and await the Apocalypse?
If Katrina and its aftermath have taught us anything, it is that
we should be prepared. With foresight and planning, we can avoid some
catastrophes altogether and lessen the impact of others. And one of the
most important tools we have is a recognition of how the physical, urban,
and human worlds interconnect. The connections between the natural
world, social life, and the ways that technology shapes and transforms
both arenas is the heart of sociological investigation. Nature is nurture—
that is, the natural world does not exist except in relationship to the social and built
worlds. City and countryside create each other; people are part of the ecosystem and
also its greatest threat. Ignoring the interconnection nearly always leads to disaster.
Recognizing and working with it may lead to a future.
ENVIRONMENTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY 647Pakistan/India
Earthquake
Pakistan
Cold weather
Latin America
Hurricane Stan
US/Bahamas
Hurricane Katrina
Indonesia
Earthquake
India
Floods & landslides
Iraq
Stampede
Iran
Earthquake
India/Bangladesh/Nepal
Heat wave
India
Stampede
0 5 10 15 20
NUMBER OF VICTIMS DEAD OR
MISSING, 2005, IN MILLIONS73.3FIGURE 19.6Catastrophes: Biggest Insurance
Losses and Worst Human CostsSource:From “Catastrophes: Biggest Insurance Losses and Worst Human
Costs,” The Economist, March 4, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by the Economist
Newspaper Group. Reproduced with permission of Economist Newspaper
Group in the format Textbook via Copyright Clearance Center.With the exception of 9/11 terrorist
attacks, the top ten most costly
catastrophes in U.S. history have all
been natural disasters—five of them
hurricanes—and allof them have occurred
since 1988 (Steinberg, 2000). According to
environmental historian Ted Steinberg, this
has far more to do with the political
capacity of cities and states to prepare for
and respond to natural disasters than some
mysterious increase in the severity of the
events. They may be disasters, but politics
makes them calamities.Didyouknow