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With the scientific and technological progress of the past few centuries, we’ve created new hazards that threaten our very survival and in this series, emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope explores the history of risk to find out how it’s understood, perceived and managed, and to ask how we can become more resilient as individuals, as a society and as a planet.
The North Sea Flood of 1953 - the combination of a high spring tide and a storm surge which swept across the East Coast killing 307 people in England - was described as the worst natural disaster in Britain of the 20th century. It was also the birth of modern risk management as the state began to recognise its increased responsibility - and accountability - in preventing future disasters.
From cost-benefit analysis and risk assessments to the insurance industry, Lucy Easthope finds out how we protect ourselves from these hazards, and whether there is ever such a thing as a ‘natural’ disaster or if they are always the result of political choices.
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