The Disaster Profiteers: How Natural Disasters Make the Rich Richer and the Poor Even Poorer (34 page)

2.
Binyamin Appelbaum, “U.S. Economic Recovery Looks Distant as Growth Stalls,”
New York Times,
June 11, 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/business/economy/us-economic-recovery-looks-distant-as-growth-lingers.html
.

3.
The area is
L
(
T
i
–
T
e
)/2, where
i
is either 1 or 2.
T
e
can be made zero without loss of generality; then it is clear that the lower area is greater than the upper.

4.
Jeremy Ashkenas and Alicia Parlapiano, “How the Recession Reshaped the Economy in 255 Charts,”
New York Times,
June 6, 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/05/upshot/how-the-recession-reshaped-the-economy-in-255-charts.html?_r=0
.

5.
This figure and the previous are similar to those presented by Stéphane Hallegate and Michael Ghil, “Natural Disasters Impacting a Macroeconomic Model with Endogenous Dynamics,”
Ecological Economics
68, nos. 1–2 (2008): 582–92. Their work provided significant inspiration for the discussion in this section.

Technical Appendix II: Disasters in Neoclassical Growth Theory

1.
Robert M. Solow, “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,”
Quarterly Journal of
Economics
70, no. 1 (1956): 65–94; doi:10.2307/1884513; Trevor W. Swan, “Economic Growth and Capital Accumulation,”
Economic Record
32, no. 2 (1956): 334–361, doi:10.1111/j.1475-4932.1956.tb00434.x. Robert M. Solow, “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function,”
Review of Economics and Statistics
39, no. 3 (1957): 312–320, doi:10.2307/1926047.

2.
According to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
in economics, the production function is an equation that expresses the relationship between the quantities of productive factors (such as labor and capital) used and the amount of product obtained. It states the amount of product that can be obtained from every combination of factors, assuming that the most efficient available methods of production are used.

3.
Costas Azariadis and John Stachurski, “Poverty Traps,” in
Handbook of Economic Growth,
Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf, eds. (ed. 1, vol. 1, no. 1, Elsevier, 2005), 326. The Wikipedia entry under “Poverty Traps” is useful and refers to Sachs's work. Also see Abhijit V. Banerjee and Ester Duflo,
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
(New York: Public Affairs/Perseus Book Group, 2011).

4.
Stéphane Hallegatte and Michael Ghil, “Natural Disasters Impacting a Macroeconomic Model with Endogenous Dynamics,”
Ecological Economics
68 (2008): 582–92, doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.05.022.

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

aftershocks,
68
,
88

see also
earthquakes

agriculture

see
farming

Ambraseys, Nicholas,
97

American Human Development Project,
160

Aquino, Benigno Simeon III,
157

Argentina,
12
,
46

Aristide, Jean-Bertrand,
85
,
104
–5

Army Corps of Engineers,
172

Aronson, Eliot,
172

Asian Development Bank,
80

atomic bomb,
25

Balko, Radley,
215

Bennett, Drake,
14

Berube, Alan,
160

Big Mac Index,
44

Big Truck That Went By, The
(Katz), 83

Bilham, Roger,
71
,
77
,
97

Bío Bío River,
112
,
122

Blanco, Kathleen,
157
,
185
–87

Bohr, Niels,
24

Bonanno, George,
22
,
252
n14

BP (British Petroleum),
19

Brazil,
48
,
59
,
143

Bronson, William,
32

Brookings Institution,
92
,
160
,
203

Broussard, Aaron,
163

Brown, Michael,
165
,
173
–74,
184
,
213
,
217

building assessment and rubble removal (BARR),
90
–91

Bush, George H. W.,
184

Bush, George W.,
157
,
163
–65,
172
–74,
176
,
178
,
184
–85,
198
,
201

Campanella, Richard,
206
–7

Canizaro, Joseph,
195
,
197
–98

capital losses,
41
–46

Capital in the Twenty-first Century
(Piketty),
42
,
220

Caracol,
118
–22

Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR),
118

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN),
51

Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED),
28
,
31
,
39

Centers for Disease Control,
34
,
80

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
42
,
122
,
140

Chayes, Sarah,
97

Cheney, Dick,
163
,
201

Chertoff, Michael,
164
,
184

Chess, Caron,
182

Children's Blizzard of 1888,
31
,
33

Children's Blizzard, The
(Laskin),
31

Chile,
6
,
12
,
60
,
65
,
88
,
109
–15,
121
–22,
150

chimeres,
87

civil rights,
185
,
205

Clarke, Lee,
182

Clarkson, Jackie,
179

climate change,
3
–4,
25
–28,
58
–59,
78
,
131
,
173
–74,
213
,
222

Clinton, Bill,
116
–19,
174

Clinton Foundation,
119

Clinton, Hillary,
118
–19

Colbert, Stephen,
26

Collier, Paul,
116
–17

Condon, Emmit,
32

corruption

death reporting and,
91

disaster and,
71
,
76
–77,
97
,
122
,
137
,
202

Haiti and,
95
–96,
99
,
109
–10

Hurricane Katrina and,
1

militarization and,
223

Myanmar and,
140
,
145

New Orleans and,
162
–63,
173

Philippines and,
157

poverty and,
26
,
48

Coyle, Diane,
42
,
45

creative destruction,
13
–14,
110
,
131
–32,
154
,
192
,
205

Cuba,
49

Culture of Calamity
(Rozario), 193

cyclones

Bohla,
64

death tolls and,
35
–37

measuring,
63

meteorology and,
61
,
63
–65

Nargis,
31
,
141
,
145
–50,
154
–56,
158
,
163
,
217

poverty and,
77
–79

Saffir-Simpson scale,
63

Sidr,
64

Superstorm Sandy compared to,
80
–81

study of,
30
,
35
–37,
58
–59

tracks of,
58
–59

Dacy, Douglas,
14

Daley, Richard M.,
31
,
150

Davis, Mike,
196
–97

De Bernardinis, Bernardo,
69
–70

death tolls

Cyclone Nargis and,
146
–48

disaster recovery and,
19

economic loss and,
16

Haiti earthquake and,
89
–90,
101
,
109
,
122

Hurricane Katrina and,
166
–68,
171
,
197

Indian Ocean tsunami and,
128

poverty and,
81
,
101
,
136
–37

reporting,
30
–34,
37
,
39
–41

Superstorm Sandy and,
208

Deep Water Horizon,
17

Denial of Disaster
(Hansen and Condon),
32

disease,
34
–36,
59
,
80

disaster risk reduction (DRR),
4
,
23
,
30
,
220

displacement,
37
–39,
64
–65,
103
,
125
,
135
,
156
,
219

DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team) facilities,
89

Doctors Without Borders,
35
,
89

Dominican Republic,
54
,
120

donations, relief efforts and,
92
,
117
,
122
,
129
,
131
,
137

drought,
12
,
19
,
35
,
37
–38,
45
,
59
,
222
,
256
–7n29

Duvalier, Papa Doc,
87
,
104
,
117
,
141
–42

Earth Shook, the Sky Burned, The
(Bronson),
32

earthquakes

death tolls Haiti and,
89
–90,
101
,
109
,
122

GDP and,
42
,
86
,
110
,
116
,
121

Japan and,
28
,
64
–65,
74
–75,
132
–38

predicting,
2
–3,
61
,
64
–70,
77
,
94
,
97
–98

wealth and,
56
–58,
64
–77

see also
Haiti; seismology

Ebola,
17
,
36
,
48

economic loss,
16
–17,
39
–40,
42
,
231

Einstein, Albert,
24

Eisenhower, Dwight,
185

elite panic,
182
–83

Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT),
28

famine,
19
,
26
,
35
,
252
n29

farming

China and,
96

Cyclone Nargis and,
147

drought and,
38

Haiti and,
85
–86,
119

Japan and,
134

Myanmar and,
147
,
155
–56

New Orleans and,
161
,
210

Okeechobee hurricane and,
166
–67

recovery and,
96
,
219

Farmland Law,
155

faults,
66
–70,
75
,
93
,
98
,
135
–36

Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault,
66
,
119
–20

Paganica Fault,
98

San Andreas Fault,
66

Septentrional Fault,
119
–21

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),
18
,
30
,
164
–66,
174
–78,
194
,
202
,
209

Ferguson, Missouri,
213
–15,
221

Ferris, Elizabeth,
92

Feynman, Richard,
2
,
5
,
24
–26,
224

floods

cyclones and,
63
,
157

death tolls and,
33
–35

disasters and,
17
–19,
21
,
45
,
59
,
221

displacement and,
37
–38

Haiti and,
121

Hurricane Katrina and,
161
–62,
165
–72,
175
,
179
,
182
–83,
199
–200

injuries and,
35

Pakistan and,
92

positive aspects of,
10
,
12
–13,
59
, 147

Superstorm Sandy and,
208
–9

foreshocks,
68
–69

Fraiman, Keren,
173

French Quarter,
1
,
179
,
196
,
203
–4

Fukushima nuclear power plant,
132
–34

Galveston Flood,
167
,
170
–71

GDP (gross domestic product)

calculating,
42

disasters and,
10
–11,
14
,
47
,
226

flaws as measurement tool,
45

Haiti earthquake and,
42
,
86
,
110
,
116
,
121

inequality and,
42
–46

Japan and,
133

maps and,
51
,
53
,
55
,
57

Sri Lanka and,
131

wealth and,
140

U.S. and,
228
–29,
233

World Bank assessment of,
122

GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History
(Coyle),
42

genetically modified organisms (GMOs),
3

Global South,
53

Greatest Hoax, The
(Inhofe),
27

Greely, Adolphus,
32

Gregory, Jesse,
201

Haiti

2010 earthquake and,
88
–99

aftermath of earthquake,
102
–9

building codes in,
94
–97

Cité Soleil,
85
–88

class and,
83
–85

compared to earthquake in Chile,
109
–16,
121
–23

death toll in wake of 2010 earthquake,
88
–90

donations to,
92
–93

factors contributing to post-quake disaster,
99
–102

fault lines and,
119
–21

NGOs and,
87
–88

profiteering and,
83
–85

recovery,
116
–19

social inequality,
88

unemployment and,
86

variation in damage from earthquake,
97
–99

Halliburton,
201

Hansen, Gladys,
32

hazard,
23

High Plains blizzard of 1888

see
Children's Blizzard

Human Development Index (HDI),
111
,
140
,
160
,
226

Hurricane Andrew,
14
,
166

Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender, and the Sociology of Disaster
(Morrow),
14

Hurricane Katrina

accountability and,
157

disasters and,
1
–2,
5
,
147

evacuation and,
149

militarization and,
113

poverty and,
149

rebuilding after,
131

victims,
37
,
39
,
41
,
81
,
89

violence and,
104
–5,
113

see also
New Orleans

India,
46
,
48
,
63
,
67
,
71
,
79
,
148
,
227
,
252
n29