Port-au-Prince and New Orleans
Extremes of nature, like hurricanes and earthquakes, can occur almost anywhere. Their effect can be anything from a nuisance–the storm that ruins the seaside vacation–to the tsunami that takes more...
View ArticleNeeded in Haiti: Reinforced Buildings—and Economy
The Jan. 12 Port-au-Prince earthquake is almost unique in modern history. It is about the worst natural extreme to affect some of the worst-off people on earth. What does disaster recovery mean when...
View ArticleBamboo Bikes Nearing Production
Imagine creating an affordable product and a sustainable industry tailored to both meet urgent demand and use native materials. This is what the Bamboo Bike Project (BBP) is doing in Kumasi, Ghana....
View ArticleDisasters, and the Traps of Poverty and Wealth
We like to categorize disasters into two types – natural and man-made. 2011 has begun with massive flooding in agricultural regions of Northeast Australia causing shoppers to brace for the inevitable...
View ArticleThe Confounding Economics of Natural Disaster Shocks
Something seems to be amiss with the way standard economics views the outcomes of natural disasters. This post i placed in OECD Insights and in Earth Magazine discusses some of the puzzles posed by...
View ArticleFrom Copenhagen to Paris: Holding onto Hope
I don’t believe for a second that we are on the brink of global destruction. We are on the brink of a global re-distribution and whole scale re-balancing of global goods and bads. But we have been...
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