Cognitive Distortion

Environmentalists commonly agree that there are no natural disasters.

The contours of a disaster (causes, vulnerability, preparedness, results, response, reconstruction) and the difference between who dies or who lives are a social calculus.

#ToAnExtent

That is, there are natural events from which disasters ensue (or not) based on location, the way societies prepare for them and how they are able to reconstruct afterward.

“The supposed “naturalness” of disasters here becomes an ideological camouflage for the social (and therefore preventable) dimensions of such disasters, covering for quite specific social interests” (Smith, 2006).

#IdeologicalCamouflage

Evidently some of us are much more vulnerable. Vulnerability is differentiated.

“Those displaced, with no private property to reclaim, face lower wages, escalating costs for scarce housing, and as the initial sympathy wears away, increased stigmatization” (Smith, 2006).

#SympathyWearsAway

Disasters do not only flatten landscapes, they wash them smooth, while eroding and deepening the ruts of social differences they encounter.

“There is no such thing as a natural disaster” (Smith, 2006).

#CognitiveDistortion

⦾ Art by AOT and RRM.
⦾ Smith, Neil. (2006). There’s No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster. Social Science Research Council.