Because they are “neither stable nor predictable, and lack well-defined processes upon which to base a plan” crises will continue to recur, often when humans are least prepared.
To a certain extent, all crises in this age must acknowledge their human element. There are acts of terrorism, plane and train crashes resulting from human error, and there are volcanic eruptions/lava slides which take a toll on humans due to their proximity to the volcano. Likewise mudslides which wash away villages on hillsides – the people having no arable land left in safer areas, move up the hills to grow their crops, praying they will be able to find safer land before another eruption. Why are they on the slopes of known volcanoes, or in areas prone to washouts? Either because there are so many humans, or because companies have seized their ancestral lands, or both – there is no other choice but to move onto marginal lands which their ancestors shunned.
With the increased aptitude of technology to quickly disseminate vital and true information, we now find people who disbelieve it and feel they are perfectly competent to “ride out the storm”, even where they have been warned it is a Category Two hurricane, and in the process of staying become either casualties which could have been avoided or hapless victims whom others must risk their lives to save.
On the other hand, preparedness has never before demanded the scale it does now, yet it still does not seem to be enough. The hurricane over Haiti is a prime example: hurricanes have hit the tropical islands before, but not on this magnitude, and not to this quantity of people. The filth left behind covers the formerly extant living areas, and there is hope neither for any new land where the populace to settle, nor the possibility of complete cleaning and starting anew on the ruined land.
majaramirez 