Climate extremes papers Canadians at Risk: Our exposure to natural hazards David Etkin, Editor February 2010 ICLR Research Paper Series – No. 48
We live in an unsafe world, one that’s filled with risks of various kinds. This book deals with those that result from natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods and tornadoes.
It’s the third part of a project conducted by many of Canada’s leading scientists in the field of hazards research and is meant to inform people about the risks they face, some of the ways we adapt to them and actions we can take to reduce our vulnerability to them.
The reader of this book will find much information on the hazards themselves, though it really just scratches the surface of our current knowledge. Perhaps the most important message, however, is that we are not just passive victims of natural hazards that are beyond our control; instead, we often make ourselves victims by our own actions. How vulnerable we are to the environment we live in is largely determined by the choices we have made in the past and will make in the future.
The authors of this book hope that this information will enable people to make more informed choices and thus create a safer society.